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White hydrangea is the most popular shrub from the family of the same name in garden plots. To decorate your front garden with beautiful flowering, you need to know how to plant and grow it correctly.
Description of white hydrangea
In the garden, white hydrangea is usually represented by tree or paniculate varieties. In both cases, the plant rises an average of 2-2.5 m above the ground, has numerous thin shoots and heart-shaped green leaves. The leaves of the plant are usually large, up to 15-20 cm in length.
White hydrangea blooms from early summer to autumn in large inflorescences - spherical or paniculate, depending on the variety. Inflorescences consist of small white flowers, tied on young annual shoots.
A feature of a garden plant is that the shade of flowering directly depends on the acidity of the soil. It produces snow-white buds on neutral soil.
The shrub blooms with huge spherical inflorescences
The plant is quite unpretentious, it can bloom for about 10 years in a row in the same place in the garden, and sometimes more.
White hydrangea varieties
There are dozens of varieties of garden white hydrangea. However, several of them are most popular with summer residents.
Annabelle
Annabelle, or smooth hydrangea, is a plant up to 1.5 m in height and up to 3 m in diameter of a bush. The variety is characterized by large oval leaves with uneven edges, dark green foliage and very beautiful snow-white flowering. Annabelle's white flowers form into large spherical inflorescences up to 25 cm wide.
Annabelle is the most popular variety among gardeners.
Annabelle is an unpretentious variety that thrives on any soil. The main requirements are regular watering and the absence of direct sunlight.
Sterilis
Sterilis white shrub hydrangea is also an upright shrub up to 1.5 m in height. The leaves of the plant are oval and slightly elongated, bright green with a bluish tint on the underside. The flowers of this variety are light green at the very beginning of flowering, and then become snow-white and remain so until the end of the season.
The Sterilis variety is distinguished by its particularly abundant flowering at the end of summer.
Especially luxuriantly white Sterilis hydrangea blooms in August. The shrub is undemanding to soils, but requires a lot of moisture.
Grandiflora
The tree-like white hydrangea of this variety reaches 2 m in height and has green oval leaves up to 10 cm each. It blooms from July to September, the buds are light green and then white, collected in large corymbose inflorescences. At the very end of flowering, Grandiflora can acquire a light creamy shade.
Treelike Grandiflora - large variety up to 2 m tall
Feels good on wet soils and likes lighted areas with light shading. Grandiflora is growing rapidly - the annual increase in growth can be up to 30 cm.
Kyushu
The panicle white hydrangea grows up to 2.5 m and spreads a crown 3 m in diameter. The stems of the bush are reddish-brown, the ovoid leaves are rich green and slightly pubescent. The plant produces white small flowers 2-3 cm each, forming large paniculate inflorescences up to 25 cm in length. By the end of flowering, the white panicles of Kyushu may acquire a slight pinkish tint.
Kiushu is a beautiful and hardy paniculata variety
Gardeners love the Kiushu variety not only for its decorative effect. The shrub grows quickly and is also characterized by good frost resistance.
White Ball
The tree variety White Ball can grow up to 80 cm in height and produces large globular inflorescences up to 30 cm in diameter, which is why the name of the white hydrangea is due. Flowering begins in July, ends in September, snow-white inflorescences look spectacular in the design of the garden. Sufficiently compact bushes are often used as hedges, since White Ball feels good in lighted areas of the garden.
White Ball is a compact variety with large globular inflorescences
White hydrangea in landscape design
To decorate the garden, white hydrangea is used very often; it looks extremely impressive against the background of summer greenery. The shrub is used for:
- creation of hedges and delimitation of the garden into separate zones;
- the formation of group and single decorative compositions;
- decorating empty areas of the garden, for example, the space near the wall of the house;
- decoration of fences and hedges.
White hydrangea goes well with tall trees, other shrubs and perennials. The shrub can be the basis of the composition when creating mixborders.
Blooming hedges look especially impressive
White hydrangea is especially appreciated for the fact that it retains its decorative effect, including at the beginning of autumn. Most shrubs and perennials have already finished flowering by this time, but hydrangea is still pleasing to the eye with snow-white inflorescences.
Winter hardiness of white hydrangea
Different varieties have different cold resistance. In general, white hydrangea calmly tolerates negative temperatures down to - 25 ° С, some varieties can withstand lowering up to - 30 ° С. But for the winter period, the shrub is recommended to be carefully covered to protect it from freezing.
Planting and caring for white hydrangea
Growing a lush shrub in your garden is not difficult; caring for it comes down to a few simple procedures. The plant does not make high demands on the gardener and only needs basic care.
Selection and preparation of the landing site
White hydrangea prefers well-lit areas with light afternoon shade and protection from strong winds. The best place for planting shrubs is an area next to any building or tall trees.
Soils for common white hydrangea are best neutral or slightly acidic, fertile and loosened. You should not plant a shrub on strongly acidic or calcareous soils, in both cases the culture will develop worse and, moreover, may change the color of the flowers.
Shortly before planting the shrub, the soil in the selected area must be dug up and humus, peat and sand must be added to it. If the soil is highly acidic, you can add a little dolomite flour to it to bring the pH closer to neutrality, but you need to observe the measure.
It is recommended to plant shrubs on neutral soil.
How to plant a white hydrangea
It is recommended to plant shrubs in the ground in May, after the return frosts have passed and the ground has warmed up. Over the summer, the white hydrangea will have time to take root well and will calmly endure the winter. In autumn, the plant is planted only in southern regions, where winter temperatures remain warm enough.
Algorithm:
- A planting hole for a white hydrangea is dug in advance, about a month before planting. The hole should be about 50 cm in width and depth.
- The hole is half filled with specially prepared soil, usually coniferous soil is mixed with humus and peat and a little sand is added for greater looseness.
- Complex fertilizers are applied to the hole - nitrogen, potassium and superphosphate, which will help the white hydrangea to take root faster.
- Immediately before planting, the seedling is soaked in water for a couple of hours and its annual shoots are shortened by several buds.
After that, the seedling is placed in the center of the dug hole, the roots are straightened inside it and sprinkled with the remnants of the soil mixture, leaving the root collar above the ground. The soil is lightly tamped, then watered abundantly with 2 buckets of water and the trunk circle is mulched with tree bark or sawdust.
The plant loves nutritious soil with the addition of humus and peat
Watering and feeding
White hydrangea loves moisture, so it needs additional watering. In dry weather, it is necessary to pour 20 liters of water under the bush weekly, and the moisture should be clean and slightly warm, the plant does not like cold water. If the summer is rainy, then the shrubs are moistened 1-2 times a month, but at the same time they make sure that the soil at the roots does not dry out.
It is recommended to feed the shrub three times a year:
- in early spring - nitrogenous fertilizers and organic matter;
- before flowering - superphosphate;
- at the end of summer - potassium sulfate or chicken droppings.
It is recommended to carry out top dressing from 3 years of age, since at first the white hydrangea has enough fertilizers applied during planting.
It is not recommended to fertilize white hydrangea in the garden with wood ash. But you can add a little potassium permanganate to the water, such a solution will protect the culture from fungal ailments and increase the frost resistance of the shrub.
You need to water the shrub often - every week
Pruning
Since the white hydrangea grows quickly, it must be pruned every spring. The procedure is carried out in early spring, before the beginning of the growing season - diseased and old shoots are removed, and young branches are shortened by 5 buds.
In the first 2 years in the spring, when pruning, it is advised to remove small buds from the shrub. This will allow the plant to devote all resources to building roots and green mass, so it can subsequently bloom more abundantly.
How to prepare a white hydrangea for winter
The winter hardiness of the white hydrangea is average, although some varieties successfully tolerate severe cold and can grow even in Siberia. But in any case, it is customary to cover the plant for the winter, and they do it as follows:
- with the onset of autumn, the faded inflorescences are removed, and the branches of the bush are bent to the ground and tied;
- the shrub is covered with agromaterial, burlap or spruce branches;
- the trunk circle is mulched with peat or compost.
Before winter, wilted inflorescences are removed from the plant
Small bushes can be surrounded by a special frame of the same height as the plant itself, and completely covered with fallen leaves inside it. The procedure is especially recommended for young bushes that are vulnerable to winter frosts.
It is not recommended to cover hydrangea bushes with a film - moisture accumulates under it, which leads to the development of fungal ailments. They remove the winter shelter from the white hydrangea in March or April, after the warm weather has finally established.
How to propagate a white hydrangea
There are several ways to propagate a hydrangea on a site:
- Layers. This method is very simple - it is enough to bend to the ground and fix a strong lower shoot in the soil at the beginning of summer, so that by autumn it will take root well. In the next season, the cuttings can be transplanted to a separate place.
- By dividing the bush. The method is suitable for adult plants with a developed root system, in the spring the white hydrangea is dug up and divided into 2-3 parts, and then planted according to the standard algorithm in different areas.
- Cuttings. In early spring, you need to cut several young shoots from a hydrangea bush, keep them in water for 2 days, and then root them in a sandy-peat mixture at home. The seedlings are transplanted into the ground in the second year, when they get a little stronger.
The easiest way is to propagate the plant by layering and dividing the bush.
If you wish, you can propagate the white hydrangea using seeds purchased from the store. Planting material is embedded in nutrient soil in pots at the end of winter and before the beginning of summer, seedlings are grown at home, and then planted outside. But seed reproduction is used infrequently, it takes a long time, and may not be crowned with success.
Diseases and pests
The immunity of the white hydrangea is average, but with improper care, the plant can suffer from fungal diseases and garden pests. Most often, the shrub is affected by:
- chlorosis, the disease develops on calcareous soils and with a lack of iron in the soil, hydrangea leaves begin to turn yellow and fall off prematurely;
With chlorosis, the leaves become stained and begin to turn yellow rapidly.
- powdery mildew - with excessive moisture, the plant can suffer from a fungus, in which the leaves become covered with a whitish bloom and begin to wither;
Powdery mildew is characterized by a whitish fluffy bloom.
- gray rot - in conditions of waterlogging, the leaves become covered with a gray bloom, and then dry out.
Gray mold leaves a light, mildew-like coating on the leaves
To combat fungi, you must, first of all, remove all affected areas of the shrub, and then treat the plant with copper sulfate or chemical agents, for example, Fundazol.
Of the pests, the danger to the plant is mainly:
- green aphid, small pests can greatly devour a decorative bush;
The aphids merge with the green foliage of the white hydrangea, but upon closer inspection, it is not difficult to notice it.
- nematodes - worms infect all parts of the hydrangea and prevent it from developing;
It is very difficult to fight nematodes, usually the diseased hydrangea is simply destroyed
- spider mite - the insect feeds on the leaves and juices of the stem, because of which the plant begins to wilt;
The spider mite prevents the development of the bush and feeds on the green mass of the plant
- slugs - garden pests eat up leaves and can cause serious damage to ornamental shrubs.
You need to fight slugs so as not to lose the entire hydrangea bush.
If, during the next inspection, pests or their larvae are found on the leaves, the shrub is treated with soapy water, garlic infusion or insecticidal preparations.
Conclusion
White hydrangea is a very beautiful shrub that is popular with gardeners. On fertile soil and with good moisture, hydrangea develops quickly and, until the beginning of autumn, pleases the eye with snow-white flowering.
