How to Change the Color of Hydrangeas

How to Change the Color of Hydrangeas

Before we begin it is important to know that not all hydrangeas can change color. The only hydrangea that have the ability to change their flower color are the hydrangea macrophylla varieties. These are the large mop head hydrangeas as seen in most gardens.

Turning your Hydrangea Blue

Blue Hydrangea is grown in acidic soil. To make your flowers blue you need to have acidic soil around pH 4.5-5. To do this you need to make aluminum present in the soil, the easiest way to achieve this is to use aluminum sulfate. I have provided a link you may use to order through Amazon. Carefully follow the instructions on the bag. It's important to mention not to add too much as it can burn roots and damage the plant and not to get the aluminum sulfate onto the leaves of plants as it can damage growth and burn the leaves.

Turning your Hydrangea Pink

Pink hydrangeas grow in alkaline soil of pH of around 6 to 6.3, if your pH is any higher then this can cause problems with the hydrangeas having a shortage of iron making them turn yellow. If your soil is already alkaline then you should be OK, you can enhance the pink and red flowers with ground limestone in winter. To raise the pH of the soil to turn blue hydrangeas pink you can add lime to the soil several times a year and feed with high phosphorous fertilizer and repeat yearly. I have provided a link below to order lime through Amazon. Carefully follow the instructions on the bag. It may be difficult to change blue hydrangeas pink because you cannot remove the aluminum from the soil which turns hydrangeas blue.

Note that this process is not immediate. In some cases it could take several months to see a change. But true gardeners are always up to the challenge!

Follow the below links to Amazon for an inexpensive way to change the color of your hydrangeas!

For Pink Hydrangeas and for Blue Hydrangeas