Hydrangeas are popular plants for many gardeners thanks to their ability to produce large, showy blooms every year – and there’s a way to make them bloom a particular shade of blue
If you’re on the hunt for a plant that will inject a splash of colour into your garden, especially in spring, hydrangeas are an excellent choice. These flowers typically blossom from mid-spring to late summer, although this can vary depending on the specific variety and the growing conditions in your garden.
Hydrangeas are particularly captivating due to their striking flowerheads, which come in a range of intriguing shapes such as balls and cones. The blooms are available in a spectrum of hues, including blue, pink, purple and white, but the colour they display can be influenced by the type of soil in your garden.
READ MORE: Nutritionist says special coffee ‘elevates energy’ and ‘manages stress’ without crash
The Royal Horticultural Society (RHS) explains that if your garden soil is acidic (with a pH of 5.5 or lower), it should yield stunning blue flowers due to the presence of aluminium, while alkaline soils (with a pH of 6.5 or higher) tend to foster more pink blossoms.
For those with a particular fondness for vibrant blue flowers, it’s possible to alter the colour of hydrangeas simply by adding coffee grounds to the soil, reports the Express.
Coffee grounds are acidic and naturally decrease the pH of the soil, making it more acidic – a crucial factor in producing blue flowers.
The coffee grounds aid in making aluminium more accessible for hydrangeas to absorb, which subsequently encourages the growth of vivid blue blooms.
Garden enthusiasts should prepare for a bit of a wait, as achieving the sought-after blue hue in hydrangeas isn’t instantaneous; it requires diligence and time. To hasten the transformation, gardening buffs can enhance their soil by incorporating aluminium sulphate.
Planting Tree highlights: “Some people report success using coffee grounds to change the colour of their hydrangeas. Coffee grounds, in theory, carry enough acid to increase the acid in your soil to change your hydrangeas to blue hydrangeas.”
This alternative method has potential, with coffee grounds naturally integrating into the soil, making it a risk-free experiment. Nonetheless, those seeking more reliable outcomes might opt for products specifically crafted to raise the acidity levels in soil.
For optimal results, sprinkle the coffee grounds around the base of the plant, ensuring they don’t touch the stems. Integrate them into the soil gently either by hand or with a trowel to promote decomposition.
Improving soil nourishment and health is also possible by composting coffee grounds prior to application at the plant’s base, delivering a broader spectrum of nutrients.
Adding to this Gardener’s World stated: “The moist, small particles of coffee grounds are certainly an excellent compost ingredient because of their texture, to mix with dry and woody waste to speed the composting process.
“Ensuring a balanced mix of ‘wet’ and ‘dry’ materials is the best way to achieve good compost. The nutrients contained in coffee grounds will be recycled back into the soil when finished compost is used as a mulch or dug into the soil. Also, add any un-drunk coffee to dry material in a compost bin.
“Coffee tends to be slightly acidic and is therefore good for acid-loving plants such as hydrangeas, as well as nutrient-hungry plants like roses, but again, use it only in moderation on any one plant.”