How To Create an Ombre-effect with your Hydrangeas

Elevate your hydrangea game playing with the ph and aluminum content of your soil to create an ombre-effect.

There’s nothing that screams summer or is quite as beautiful as a mass of hydrangeas in bloom. Some varieties of hydrangeas are only white, while others can range from blue to purple to pink depending on the aluminum and acidic level of their soil. The hydrangea I have planted at my home is Endless Summer. This hydrangea will usually be blue when purchased. It’ll stay blue if you continue to feed it properly. It’s also one of the few hydrangeas that will repeat bloom from spring to fall if you keep it deadheaded.

Endless Summer Hydrangeas ombre from blue to purple to pink in color.

I have my hydrangeas planted in a line next to my house. Years ago, I decided to experiment and see if I could make the row have a an ombre effect: ranging from blue, to purple, to pink.

It worked.

Ombre-effect hydrangeas. Their color ranges from blue to purple to pink down the line of plants

Fertilizer is key to ombre-effect

You have probably read a dozen times that hydrangeas turn blue in acidic soil. The ph of the soil is only half of the cause. The reality is that the more acidic the soil, the easier the plant can take up aluminum. It’s the aluminum that actually turns the flowers blue. It doesn’t matter how much aluminum is in your soil if the soil tests base because the plant won’t be able to take up the aluminum and your flowers will be pink.

If I have the same amount of aluminum in 4 different pots of hydrangeas, but the pots’ soil range from acidic to base, each with a different value, then the pot with the more acidic soil will take up the most aluminum and be bluer. This fact is what will allow you to create an ombre effect with your hydrangeas.

Ombre-effect

The easiest method is to use a good quality fertilizer made specifically for hydrangeas. You can of course, use a fertilizer for acid loving plants and then add aluminum, but I like to keep things easy for myself. I have always used Jack’s Classic Hydrangea Blue .

First, always water your hydrangeas with just water before applying any fertilizers. Never apply fertilizer to dry soil. You don’t want to accidentally burn tender roots. It’s best to apply fertilizer early in the morning when it’s still cool. Do not get the fertilizer on the leaves.

Jack’s Classic Hydrangea Blue is mixed at 1 tablespoon/gallon and fed once a month during the growing season. Mix up 1 gallon of water & fertilizer in your watering can at a time.

Apply an entire gallon to the first plant or to each plant in the first 1/4 of your hydrangea bed.
Apply 3/4th gallon to the second plant or to each plant in the second 1/4 of your hydrangea bed.
Apply 1/2 gallon to the third plant or to each plant in the third 1/4 of your hydrangea bed.
Apply 1/4 gallon to the fourth plant or to each plant in the last 1/4 of your hydrangea bed.

You can also divide your bed in to thirds and apply one gallon, 2/3 gallon and 1/3 gallon to each section respectively.

However, I don’t think dividing your bed up in to more than 4 sections and applying even more graduated amounts of fertilizer is going to give you a noticeable difference in ombre-effect with your hydrangeas.

Unfertilized

Some years, life gets in the way and I don’t have the time or energy to fertilize my hydrangeas. Those years, my plants end up being mainly pink and a little purple. I still think they look beautiful.