Dear Hydrangea Enthusiasts,
WELCOME
Welcome to the August 2008 e-mail
newsletter for Hydrangeas Plus®. I hope everyone is having a
wonderful summer and your hydrangeas are blooming and blooming.
We've been doing a little housecleaning around here. We have
upgraded our website shopping cart to the latest and greatest version.
If you've done a search for our website through Google, you'll
notice a nasty note that says 'This site may harm your computer'.
The generic search for our website has been hijacked. We
are diligently working to get this cleared up but working with Google
has been a nightmare. Of course the pay search is working just
fine and putting dollars in their pockets. When in doubt just
type in our address of click here to visit our website http://www.hydrangeasplus.com.
Unfortunately, this has happened to other companies so we are
weighing our options at this point. I just vibrate every time I
think about it. Especially with all the advertising dollars we
have spent with this company. Argh.
WHAT HAPPENED TO JULY
Okay, I digress. I did miss
July newsletter but I did do a video tour of the nursery. Since I
couldn't get myself organized for a tour when the plants looked good,
before the heat, I did take some video and was hoping to upload to
YouTube. I'm the hydrangealady. So appropriate because
that's what the garden club around here call me. 'Oh, ask the
hydrangea lady to speak, she sells plants, too!!' I really will
get that uploaded and you can see some of the live action here at the
nursery. I'll get that going sooner or later. When do the
kids go back to school? September? Pencil me in for
September. Right now I just have my best friend's 40th birthday
party and a visit from some Turkeys and Peacocks at the nursery.
I know, exciting stuff for us country folk. Just take a
look at http://www.youtube/user/hydrangealady.
CULTIVARS COMING BACK IN STOCK
I'm out there every few weeks
checking on those cultivars and doing the grow dance. The 1 year
plants are just getting potted up into the containers so those won't be
rooted until next year but most the 2 year and 3 year plants will be
ready this fall. Just email me if you're waiting for something.
I'll let you know when I put it back in stock. With our
upgrade, the notification of 'back in stock' wasn't available so I'm
back to manual transmission for that one.
Le Tour Des Plants - September 13th - 21st, 2008
Yes, that time of the year.
This year the Oregon Association of Nurseries has 46 nurseries
and garden centers locations on the tour. You locals and
non-locals must see this. It's going to be the third year for
this fabulous program. It's a self-guided tour of the niche
nurseries and garden centers in Oregon and SW Washington. Fall is
a great time to plant shrubs (check your local extension office to make
sure it's good for your zone). Our NW fall is full of liquid
sunshine ready to supply those new shrubs with the H20 they need to get
established. Check out the website at http://www.letourdesplants.com for participating nurseries and all the fabulous events going on around the nursery world.
We will have fabulous prices (like
20 to 30% off retail prices) and lots of seminars to help you become an
expert on hydrangeas. Well, not too much of an expert because,
why would you need me? All Day Every Day special is free bag of
Hydrangeas Plus® Fertilizer or Hydrangeas Plus® Lime with any
$50 purchase.
Hours and events are as followed
Weekday, noon to 4pm
Weekends, 10am to 5pm
September 13 - Kickoff for LeTour Des Plants
Opening day contest - enter to win $100 Gift Certificate for Hydrangeas Plus
10am - cut flower demonstration
1pm - pruning demonstration (will put this on You Tube at a later date)
2pm - Guided tour with me through the nursery
September 14
1pm - pruning demonstration
2pm - pruning demonstration
September 15-19 - weekdays - no events planned but open noon to 4pm
September 20
10am - Meet Paul Simmons, my favorite customer and Kiwi/Kiwi honey guy of K&B Farms
1pm - pruning demonstration
2pm - Guided tour with me through the nursery
September 21
2pm - pruning demonstration
3pm - pruning demonstration
FREE SHIPPING for fall orders (over $199)
That time of the year again, we're
offering free shipping for your orders OVER $199 in September, October
and November. Use the Coupon Code FREE SHIP after you've added
the products to your shopping cart (that's just 5 of our 3 year plants,
on average at retail price) and in the cart, under 'Redeem a discount
coupon, type FREE SHIP. Continue shopping or fill out your
customer information after that. You won't notice anything on the
cart that says you have the coupon in place. Other than shipping
cost will be zero. These orders must ship in September, October
or November of this year, 2008. If you have trouble using the
coupon, just type me a note in the special shipping instructions and I
can adjust this at my end.
2009 catalog
Yep, we're gearing up for the next
catalog. the number IX, nueve, nine, three squared, number of
cat's lives, nine ball, famous love potion #, title 9, ten minus one.
Getting a little carried away but a
lot of pressure as you can see for myself and my graphix designer (yet
to be hired). Lots of thought and effort go into these catalogs.
Volume 8 actually celebrated our 15th year in business so this
will be our 16th year, sweet sixteen. Oh gads, another biggie.
Anyhow, please let us know your address changes. If you
didn't get a catalog this year or you haven't ordered in a few years,
let me know and I'll make sure your address is up to date. We
spend a good deal getting the catalog just right and I don't want you
to miss out!
Questions and Answers - these are from the last few months that many of you may be too shy to ask
Q: I would like to transplant my mop head hydrangeas and would like to know if fall
would be the best time. I have two I would like to just switch places. They have
been in the ground for 4 years. Thanks Cathi in OH
A: I would suggest early September when it starts getting cool nights. You can also
do it in the spring.
Macrophylla hydrangeas
have fairly shallow roots so don't worry about getting too deep. Mulch the
newly transplanted hydrangeas really well this winter just in case the roots
don't get totally established in time for winter.
If you get a
cool spell, (does that ever happen in Ohio) you can transplant any time but be
sure you give the roots extra water. Not so they are drenched but just keep
them moist.
Q: How and when is a good time to trim a hydrangea tree?
A: I like to prune in the spring. That way, the blooms are
smaller and the plant doesn't bend with its weight.
I prune the tree pretty hard, again, so the weight of the
blooms don't bend the stems. Typically, our tree puts on 4 feet of growth each
year (yes, it's very happy). I cut off 3 feet, right above a node or a
branching stalk. It looks pretty naked but comes back just beautiful. I wait
until I see nodes in the spring though.
You may prune the same way in the fall if it's more
convenient. Same way, just do it while it's still green but after the blooms
have changed colors (you can bring in the blooms for dried flowers). The
Paniculata family of hydrangeas bloom on new wood so don't worry about cutting
off your blooms like you risk with the Macrophylla mopheads and
lacecaps.
I hope that helps. Please let me know if I can be of
further assistance.
Q: We have over 100 hydrangea bushes here, several from your fine company. About 45
of them are Nikko Blue and another common blue variety and are 9 years old. This
year, we have had a banner bloom year (after last year's lackluster one due to
late frost and early heat wave), HOWEVER, the nice blue/lavender blooms are
almost completely faded to a creamy/greenish/pale. I have never observed this
particular color transformation and it seems to have happened very early. Our
blooms usually start to age to a pretty greenish in September. This year's
fading is not only early but an unusual color (cream). My pink varieties
(Glowing Embers etc) are not fading at all. Any insights into why this might
occur?
A: I think it's a combination of heat and amendments. If you
over fertilize or add aluminum sulfate to the soil, the blooms age faster. If
you have early and hot weather, the blooms fade faster. The Nikko Blue (Endless
Summer, All Summer Beauty and all those other remonant cultivars) do that more
often and quicker than the European bred varieties (Glowing Embers, et
all).
We're having a really unusual year here. The blooms are so
small. I can't remember a year when this has happened. We had a really strange
weather year. Very chilly for most of the spring, late frost followed by record
heat in early May.
Q: Several years ago I purchased a number of small plants from you for my home in
RI. They are all doing wonderfully and I am extremely pleased with the beautiful
blooms and the ongoing health of the plants. About 3 years ago I also purchased a
climbing hydrangea (unfortunately not from you) which has failed to bloom. I am
told that the plant needs more than 3-4 hours of sun each day. Since I want to
place a climbing hydrangea in that spot, do you have a recommendation for a
variety that will bloom with 3-4 hours of sun each day? Any suggestions would
be appreciated.
A: I'm just thrilled the plants are doing well for you. You should take the credit, however.
The trick for the climbing hydrangea to bloom is height.
What do you have it climbing on? Trellis? Tree?
My theory is that as soon as the climbing hydrangea reaches
the apex of structure, it will bloom. After years of growing climbing
hydrangeas, it finally dawned on me that the ones that bloomed the soonest were
the ones we had growing on stakes (2.5 feet or so). We would usually stake
about half our crop. The ones on the stakes bloomed, the others would not
bloom.
Be patient with those climbers. Fertilize and keep them
healthy. When they are ready, they will bloom for you.
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Sincerely,
Kristin VanHoose
Hydrangeas Plus®
http://www.hydrangeasplus.com