Hydrangea is loved by gardeners for a long and lush flowering. This plant tolerates the temperate and temperate continental climate of Russia. Gardeners are interested in the question of the strength of growth and the intricacies of growing abundantly flowering bush.

How old is hydrangea?

Hydrangea in most species is a shrub or tree that grows from 1 to 3 m. There are tree-like lianas among plants that can climb up to 10 m in support.

In our latitudes, mainly four types of culture are grown:

• panicled;
• Bretschneider;
• large-leaved;
• tree-like.

On average, for the first time, hydrangea blooms and bears fruit in 4-5 years. The shrub grows rapidly: more often the growth is 20–25 cm per year, less often 15 cm. To grow to a height of 3 m, the crop will need about 12–15 years.

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Growing rules

The key to success is a healthy seedling. Weak planting material will grow for a long time. It is better to buy a plant with a closed root system. To make sure of its quality, they carefully drop out and inspect from the container. In a promising seedling, the soil lump is braided evenly by the roots. The root system is clean, without spots, and the shoots are symmetrical to the central stem.

Site and soil preparation

All types of hydrangeas love a sunny place, but in the hot midday hours they need shading. Ultraviolet can burn young foliage and flower petals. It is advisable to plant it out of the blue, in a shelter from the wind. The superficial root system is poorly rooted in uneven areas, and a strong rush can tear a young bush out of the ground.

Hydrangea is one of the few plants that feel equally good in soils with a high level of acidity.However, there is a subtlety that a gardener needs to know:

• blue and blue flowers appear on acidic soils (4-5 pH);
• pink, lilac tones - in alkaline conditions (7.5–8.5 pH);
• shades of beige and white in neutral soil (6.5–7 pH).

For example, varieties of large-leaved hydrangea often have inflorescences of blue and blue color, and treelike and panicled - white, pale or bright pink flowers. Planting a plant as a hedge, you can create different conditions for each bush and get a colorful fence.

Before planting, the site is cleaned of plant debris and a pit of 50 × 70 cm and a depth of 50 cm is dug. The extracted soil is mixed with coarse sand in a 2: 1 ratio and 40 g of potassium salt and superphosphate are added. Too poor garden soil is mixed with chernozem in a ratio of 1: 1.

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Scheme and landing technique

In the central and northern regions, it is advisable to plant a crop in the spring, so that it can take root before winter. In the south of the country, they also practice autumn planting.

Process technology:

1. Remove the seedling from the container, shake the ground.
2. Inspect the roots and prune too long or damaged.
3. At the bottom of the hole lay drainage of broken brick or expanded clay with a layer of up to 15 cm.
4. From the nutrient soil, make a mound at the bottom of the pit, corresponding to the volume of the roots.
5. Falling asleep with soil, regulate the position of the root neck - 5-7 cm above the surface of the pit.
6. Land to crush and compact.
7. The last stage is watering (8-10 liters of water) and mulching with sawdust.

Care requirements

It’s easy to take care of the culture, the procedures are standard. A number of rules must be observed:

1. Watering. Water needs standing room temperature. With regular natural precipitation, watering is required once a week, on a large bush up to 30 liters.
2. Top dressing. In the spring, before flowering, a complex of urea of ​​15 g, potassium salt and superphosphate of 40 g / 10 l is added. Mineral fertilizer can be replaced with organics - mullein infusion in a ratio of 1:15 under a bush of up to 10 liters. At the stage of bud appearance, urea is excluded, 2 g of boric acid are added to the solution. The last feeding is carried out no later than mid-August. Use potassium salt and superphosphate 50 g each, you need to incorporate into the soil of the trunk circle.
3. Loosening and mulch. The soil is regularly, after each watering, fluffed up, providing breathing of the root system. Mulch helps keep the near-stem circle clean, inhibits the evaporation of moisture and protects the roots from overheating.
4. Pruning. A radical procedure is carried out in the spring. The plant needs a sanitary and shaping haircut throughout life. Curved, unpromising and incorrectly growing branches weaken the culture, they are removed. By adjusting the contour of the crown, the gardener creates the shape of a bush. Valley shoots are shortened by a third of the length or up to 3-4 buds.When pruning, all sections must be treated with garden var. Otherwise, the infection will fall into the wound and the plant will die.
5. Wintering. The trunk circle is covered with a thick (up to 25 cm) layer of mulch from sawdust or straw. Lay on top of the spruce branches. Pegs are hammered in a circle on which the covering material is pulled. In winter, it is advisable to clear the bush of snow that has fallen so that its severity does not break the branches.1- tilted shoots, 2 -cocking, 3- spruce branches, 4- lutrasil, 5- stone

How to deal with pests and hydrangea diseases

Most varieties common in the culture are resistant to disease, rarely attacked by insects. But it is advisable to know the methods of dealing with both:

1. Downy mildew, powdery mildew. The solution to the problem will be double spraying of the bush with an interval of 10 days with a Bordeaux mixture of 3%.
2. Chlorosis. A solution of iron sulfate in a proportion of 10 g / 10 l of water will help to cope with misfortune. In case of severe damage, the concentration should be 50 g / 10 l.
3. Tracheomycosis. Watering the soil and spraying with an aqueous solution of the fungicide "Maxim" 2 ml / 10 l is an effective way to combat the disease.
4. Gray rot. The drug “Alirin-B” is useful. It is necessary to dissolve 2 tablets in 1 liter of water and treat the bush with this composition.
5. Root nematode. "Bazudin" in granules is embedded in moist soil of 1.5 g / m². Thus, you can get rid of the pest.
6. Spider mite. The drug "Actellic" will help to cope with the problem. A solution for spraying is prepared in a ratio of 2 ml / 2 l of water and then the plant is treated.
7. Aphid leaflet. For fight use means "Acarin". 2 ml of the drug is dissolved in 1 liter of water and treated with the ground part of the flower.
8. Slug. Shellfish are harvested by hand. Broken nut shells scattered on the ground will help to prevent the appearance.

Conditions for lush flowering

Carefully approaching the grower will help the bush bloom lushly. Mistakes in care: excess or lack of moisture and nutrition, weeds - lead to diseases, respectively, to a loss of decorative qualities.

Important! For planting hydrangeas, it is better to use seedlings 2-3 years old. The seed growing method is longer and less effective.

Due to biological features, hydrangea cannot "get" the substances and water it needs from the depths of the soil. Therefore, when planting, the meager earth on nutrients is fertilized by introducing chernozem, peat, compost or humus. Minerals are placed in the pit because the organics are too saturated with nitrogen. An overabundance of this element will cause the plant to grow, but there will be little strength for flowering.

To accelerate the appearance of buds, to make the inflorescences stuffed, dense, spraying is used with an aqueous solution of gibberellins. The concentration of the drug is 50 ml / 1 l, repeated treatment after a week.

The first flowering takes away a lot of energy from the culture, so in the second year it can be sluggish. It is recommended to pick off all the first inflorescences so that next season they bloom in full force. It is important to rejuvenate the bush in a timely manner. Experienced flower growers carry out radical pruning to a stump every 5-7 years, depending on the variety and species.

Hydrangea can be called a unique garden plant. Different types and varieties are used in various design compositions, not to mention the rich color palette of the culture.