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| Notice the small pink Hydrangeas |
Two mysterious things have been going on in my garden. In the front by the driveway I have 2 large blue hydrangeas. In front of them Mac had taken a cutting from one of them and started a new plant in a pot which has done very well, but surprisingly its flowers are pink instead of blue. Hydrangeas grown in acidic soil produce blue flowers and those grown in slightly alkaline soil produce pink ones. So at first I assumed the soil in the pot must be alkaline, but Mac took a closer look and found a small iron garden fork in the pot and that's what had caused the color change! I'd always heard that putting iron in the soil would give you pink hydrangeas and now I know it's true.
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| Mystery Solved |
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| Caladiums in a Pot |
The other mystery, the one we haven't solved, has to do with my caladiums. I always put a pot of caladiums in my shady side garden, I never plant them in the ground. Well this year 2 caladiums came up on their own, the first in the front flower bed just down from the hydrangeas and the other out in the garden area under a cedar tree. How did they get there? I haven't a clue. I always buy the caladiums already growing, though once in a while I'll buy the "tuber" and grow them that way, but always in a pot. I looked up propagating them and it said they flower and propagate that way or you can divide the tuber. Well my caladiums have never flowered and I've never divided them, so I have no idea how I got the new plants. I'm not complaining, I'm just mystified.
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| Garden Caladium |
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| Front Yard Caladium |
Pink hydrangeas, have only seen blue ones in the South, all you have to do is stick a fork in with them! Funny old thing, science, isn't it?
ReplyDeleteCan't help you with the caladiums,my husband is the gardener, but somehow, a bulb must have escaped the pot, I should think.
How interesting ...pink ones are more common here ...and I was told to add copper sulphate to the surrounding soil to turn them blue!!!
ReplyDeleteMaybe you went on holiday, and all those caladiums shouted, 'Quick! Flower!'?
ReplyDeletex
(Let's not worry about how they managed to deadhead themselves so you'd never guess!)
The soil in our garden is clay and we have a hydrangea plant that has mostly blue but also a few pink flowers on it these will gradually turn into a lilac colour as time goes on. It has done this for the past three or four years - when we first planted it it was all pink:)
ReplyDeleteI've always found it fascinating that hydrangeas change colour according to what type of soil it's grown in.
ReplyDeleteThat's quite fascinating about the hydrangeas - and now Mac can call himself the "Garden Detective"!
ReplyDeleteThose caladiums (caladia?) are beautiful.