Why does hydrangea lose color ?
The intense colors of the hydrangea flowers make these shrubs wonderful plants for bedding. By planting them in the garden, we want them to decorate it as long as possible. Meanwhile, it happens that the hydrangea lose color of flowers or leaves. It doesn’t look so pretty then. Find out why hydrangea loses color and what to do then. Here are 3 possible causes of this problem!
1. Hydrangea lose color due to incorrect soil pH
In the case of garden hydrangea, the color of the flowers depends to a large extent on the acidity of the substrate. In very acidic soil the flowers are intensely blue. Pink on alkaline soils.
Sometimes it happens that you plant a blue hydrangea, and after some time the flowers become pale and paler, the hydrangea loses its color, and sometimes it turns pink. This is because the color of flowers depends largely on the pH value of the soil.
Only strongly acidic soils make the hydrangea flowers intensely blue. By planting garden hydrangea in a substrate with the addition of peat, special mixtures of acidic hydrangea substrate and adding aluminum compounds (e.g. aluminum alum), you can influence the color of the hydrangea flowers.
Specialist fertilizers for hydrangeas are available in gardening stores, which give the flowers an intense blue color.
Sometimes the hydrangea loses the color of not only flowers, but also leaves. This usually happens when the hydrangea grows in a substrate with a very high pH. The hydrangea leaves turn pale and pale while the veins remain green. In this case, use acidifying fertilizers (e.g. ammonium sulphate), acid peat and pine bark, which you sprinkle under the plant, creating a layer of mulch.
2. The hydrangea loses its color naturally
Bouquet hydrangea comes in a very large number of varieties. Each of them differs in size of flowers, shade and the way in which it blooms. When buying a bouquet hydrangea in a specific variety, it is worth knowing its characteristics. Sometimes the hydrangea loses its color because this is due to its natural life cycle and is not at all a symptom of a negative phenomenon.
Bouquet hydrangea ‘Grandiflora’ has white-cream flowers and maintains this color throughout the flowering period. On the other hand, the hydrangea ‘Limelight’ first turns greenish-yellow, and then the flowers of this hydrangea lose their green color and become creamy white. Variety ‘Pinky Vinky’ from creamy or pale pink, turns into intense pink.
3. The hydrangea loses its color because a pest feeds on it
The loss of leaf color in hydrangeas is often due to the pest’s feeding. The spider mite feeds from May to mid-August on the underside of the leaf, sucking the sap from the plant’s cells.
As a result of feeding the spider mite, the hydrangea loses its color, turns pale, the leaves turn yellow, dry at the edges and fall off. After observing such symptoms and the characteristic spider mite formed by spider mites, spray with the spider mite.
