Fully Caffeinated

It's May. The sky is gloomy. Just when I feel my heart might break after the last petal falls from that first oh so flamboyant spring rose bloom, I discover on my morning walkabout that the hydrangeas have begun to bloom. Spirits are instantly lifted. It's spring again, despite the persistent marine layer.

Last year I caved in to my love of these spring to summertime charmers and potted up several of them to add to the ones I already had in the ground. White, pink, lavendar and a single blue one. The blue seems unnatural to me and a poor color fit with the purple sheds, so I won't be adding any of the bluing chemicals. Some of the new potted hydrangeas are the repeat bloomers called "Endless Summer." They bloomed right through the very end of autumn last year before I trimmed them back. They wintered over in their pots and are full of blooms ready to pop again. Very satisfying! The mophead style blooms are not as large or full as the standard non repeat blooming macrophylla, but repeat blooming more than compensates.

Throughout the year I feed them coffee grounds and various other fertilizers depending on my mood and theirs. They seem to like this mixed brew as evidenced above.

I recently purchased two climbing hydrangeas. They are purported to cover a house if you aren't careful about pruning them back each winter. Wouldn't that be lovely?

Here are some hydrangea links: http://www.hydrangeashydrangeas.com/
Pete's Hydrangeas: http://www.conweb.com/hydrangea/

Hydrangeas can be propagated from cuttings. Here are some instructions.