For years I struggled with keeping the Endless Summer hydrangeas in the front yard as blue as possible – asking Andy to save all his coffee grounds and religiously amending the soil with them, collecting all our rusty metal items from the garage (nails, screws, washers, paper clips) and inserting them into the soil around the roots, and mixing scary-looking acid-green acidifiers into the watering can and carefully pouring the mixture just onto the hydrangeas. For the occasional bloom, here and there, it worked, but only in the slightest – the petals would fight to turn pink, moving from the blue where they started through a purple tone, and into the pink they so clearly desired.
At the same time the front yard hydrangeas went in, I planted a blue variety – not the Endless Summer variety which bloomed on old and new wood – this one only bloomed on old wood. The trade-off for the blue I so sought was paid for by the fact that our winters usually killed off any potential flower buds. For many years – a full decade at least – this one barely deigned to bloom. When it did, there was maybe one or two small stalks that were hidden in the shade of its foliage.
This year we must have had a milder winter, coupled with a less-aggressive pruning practice, and the results are these beautiful blue blooms on our backyard hydrangea. It is located right outside our bedroom window, and makes an especially stunning sight when the afternoon sunlight is slanting through its flowers. It’s so nice when things are worth the wait.
