How do I Keep my

[TrustyTru]

Hydrangers Blue.

I bought a lovely hydranger plant which I put in a large pot and I would like to keep it the lovely blue colour that it is.

I know its all do with the the type of soil and acid etc that you have to use but being a novice I dont know what I need to do. Can you help?

Tru

[Capsid]

Yes, you should plant it in ericaceous compost which you can buy from garden centres.

[Alison]

You need to make sure it's in ericaious (sorry, never can spell that!) compost and feed it with a special feed for this type of soil (available at garden centres etc). Also, note that you're better watering with rain water as this tends to be far more acidic than tap water. If the soil gets too alkaline then the plant will suffer and you run the risk of getting a very sick plant but it's not difficult. Note that if you're soil is naturally acidic then it's often easiest to just bung it in the ground.

[Rhona]

We have two VERY vigorous hydrangeas in our front garden. We do nothing apart from give them a prune once a year, and they look wonderful. And they provide cut flowers for the house on an almost never-ending basis!

Good luck with it - I never used to like them much, but quite a fan now.