Hydrangeas
 

I had a lovely blue hydrangea that I got out of the pitiful sale pile last year. I stuck it in a large pot, it died off over the fall, and I left it in the pot and flipped the pot over so it wouldn't crack. I dumped off the dirt in a pile and used the pot for something else last week.

I came home this morning and noticed a bunch of shoots coming out of that pile of dirt. Is it possible that the hydrangea plant is coming back???

It was on top of the ground and it was below zero for many days last winter. I never expected it to survive since it was a runt to begin with or I would have covered it with leaves or something before winter and NOT dumped the pot. I may have to do a hydrangea rescue!

I love blue hydrangeas. They remind me of my grandmother's old homeplace in NC. I was worried that if I bought some they wouldn't survive in my backyard. If they can survive a Maine winter I think they can survive a Georgia summer!! Now.....I think I'll give it a try!! :D

Why I never rip anything out, throw anything away or plant over until I know for sure what that is, coming up. You just never know what will live.

It really would not surprise me if the hydrangea made it.

I say save it!!!

Wonderful blooming news!!!

Peace,
David

Plants never cease to amaze me.

When the city dug up our front garden last spring, I had to remove a whole bunch of Saponaria rock garden plant. Most of it died and a little bit survived in the corner, when I rebuilt that garden. This spring? It moved up under the ground all the way to the sidewalk...10+ feet of it...and it all bloomed! Who would of thought ?
Here is a pic of one small corner of it...the purple little flowers:
If you look in my profile album I have pics of the dug up area. Pretty bleak. Picture #32 on page 2-- lower right hand corner.

I thought it was surely goners!

Wow, what luck! I hope that's what it is RW! :)

This winter I bought some expensive seeds for purple wave petunias. Out of the 30 seeds I planted I have maybe one or two live plants and they're taking forever to grow. BUT, at work, I have hundreds of purple wave petunias coming up that seeded over from last fall! I dug up about a dozen and planted them at home. As long as the bunnies don't get them all, I'll have some pretty flowers and I'll never buy those seeds again. :D

I have petunia volunteers too. Some come back as they were,
but the one in my profile album came back yellow with lavendar edges! It is the second pic on page 1.

The purple wave is slow...mine too.

I found that the Super Blossom fertilizer just totally ramped up my toonies last summer. 10-52-10 very powerful. I mix it very dilute, and water once a week. Toonies are very heavy feeders.
Yours might grow faster with more food.

If the toonie foliage gets yellowish that is a sign of mineral deficiency.
Iron manganese and something else, I forget at the moment.
I just learned this looking up growing info on them since I had so many seedlings this year. Make sure your fertilizer provides those nutrients or you might have weak yellow plants.

I have snapdagon volunteers. And I haven't planted any in 10 yrs!

:)

The johnny jump ups came back in full force. There are 10x as many as I planted last year. My granddaughter likes to pick the blooms and offer them to her fairy statue. I helped her dig a couple up and replant them around the fairy, and they are doing really well. She's proud of her gardening efforts.


Mrs D - maybe it was the fertilizer that gave your flowers the oomph to cross that sidewalk! WOW! Very pretty too.

Wow... I've heard of seeds being dormant...but 10 yrs!

That's amazing!

One thing in addition that appeared in the replanted front garden along the street was a wild vetch. We accidentally brought this small wild pea home in some ferns one year. I let it stay because peas nitrify the soil and help other plants. Well, it is mixed in there with the Saponaria too. I am going to harvest the pods if they ripen before we leave for summer and try them across the street in the "wild" area I am fixing.

I did give two Super Blossom treatments last fall in that spot.
When I dug out the Saponaria to save it (which died) I found it had a very deep finger sized root stock way down in the sand.
So that must have been stimulated and went all the way up to the sidewalk...the opposite direction from the damage!

Makes one wonder if just sticking a spade deeply here and there sometimes will do the same thing?

Hydrangeas overwinter pretty well in Pittsburgh. They come back with new shoots every spring, so this doesn't surprise me that yours came back. I love hydrangeas. I'm looking into buying a new variety called Endless Summer that are supposed to bloom all summer.

mine always come back up after winter each year... and in upper Michigan...if I am thinking hte right kind of plant lol....

good luck, sarah

MrsD,

I bet Brain's volunteer snapdragons are from last year's plants. I get those too with my snapdragons. I also have portulaca coming up and I haven't bought that in four years. :)

I just assumed it could never happen with wave petunias since it's such an expensive hybrid. :)

Those are pretty Holly, I hope they do well in your garden. :)

That's what the hydrangea I bought was..."Endless Summer"
There were no directions on the stick in the pot, just the name, so I was flying by the seat of my pants with it, and like I said, it was a sale pot.

I was surprised when it thrived through summer but the last thing I expected was to see it again this year! I'm going to transplant the sprouts along my "warm wall" where the sun shines most of the day and see what happens!

Some bushes sleep I think. We had a mock orange that died
and we just left it the way it was. (at least we thought it was dead)

And now years later (at least 6 yrs) it is sending up suckers!
This was after some construction work on wall it was near by the city last spring.

edit to add... we had left the dead Mock Orange where it was, since the cats like to rub on the bark...something in it attracts them?
Most of the little branches broke off anyway, and since it was on the city's easement, it was no big deal. But now I have a ton of suckers there mixed in with the resident day lilies. For now we will leave it be and see what happens.

So...I planted the sprouting plants along the warmest wall I have and mulched around them and protected them from the neverending, pounding rain we are having here. I weeded each week since my first post and even gave them a shot of manure tea. I nurtured them and watched them start to grow.

Then I decided to look online at a few links to see what others offered for growing tips and I found...


the plants I planted are weeds...
(insert falling down pounding the ground laughing here)

They are, without a doubt, the most sturdy, vigorous weeds I have ever planted.

Oh, my!

You are a brave soul to come on here and admit that! ;)

Sometimes there are "interesting" weeds.. I've used them myself.
Oxeye daisy is considered a "weed", for example.

But if yours were wild mustard, dandylions etc I can see that difference!

I have a hydrangea that I started from a slip from one in my mother-in-law's yard about 5 years ago. It outgrew the pot it was in and I repotted it this spring. The ants are just loving this plant; I think I might have aphids.

I read somewhere that they need about 6 hours of sun a day to flower, but also that they need to be on the northern side of the house. I don't know about anyone else's property, but the north side of my yard is in the shade all day lol.

Ms. Alffe and I were talking about her Endless Summer hydrangeas when I was there last week. We are mystified. The bush grows just fine but no flowers!

Any suggestions????? :D :hug:

I don't know much about those in particular, but a lot of flowering bushes are like this... wrong/no fertilizer and they don't bloom. Try one made especially for blooming.
The balance of nutrients can be really important. Takes a lot of oomph to make those flowers.

Lj - can you try the east side of the house? I think they say north side because then you won't get as much intense sunlight, later in the day. I think they need the more gentle light, but don't quote me. I'd try east, see how it does, if not good then try somewhere else. I keep moving plants until they die or thrive.

:p