Nikko Blue Hydrangea
| Qty | 1 | 5 | 10+ |
| Price per Plant | $22.50 | $7.00 | $6.00 |
Out of stock
Hydrangea macrophylla ‘Nikko Blue’
An extremely popular flowering shrub, the Nikko Blue Hydrangea is a selected form of the Mophead Hydrangea (French Hydrangea) which originated in China and Japan. It is named after the Nikko, Japan. Nearly everyone is familiar with their enormous and colorful blooms. Appearing more pink in alkaline soils, Nikko Blue Hydrangea flowers are borne from June to frost. With their coarse deep green foliage, these flowering shrubs are excellent foundation or specimen plants, and their wonderful flowers can act as accents in a flower garden. The Nikko Blue Hydrangea does quite well in containers for use on decks and patios where proper shade exists. An all around excellent plant, the plant is relatively disease and insect resistant and wonderfully variable in bloom color by modification of soil pH conditions! To turn them their distinct shades of blue, acidify the soil by adding 2 tablespoons of aluminum sulphate to a gallon of water per bush. Pruning is not necessarily needed for the Nikko Blue Hydrangea. If you do feel compelled to prune, buds are set in late summer to early fall. Prune prior to this timeframe. Prune back to where you see healthy buds growing. If you prune after the buds have been set, you risk losing flowers for next year. Dead branches can be pruned out at any time.
| Classification | |
|---|---|
| Diseases & Insects | Bacterial wilt, bud blight, leaf spot, powdery mildew, rust, aphids, leaf tier, rose chafer, oyster shell scale, two-spotted mite, nematodes; none of these are particular serious |
| Family | Hydrangeaceae (Also included in Saxifragaceae by some authorities) |
| Flowers | Flower panicles (corymbs) are 4-8 inches in spread and 4 inches in depth. The flower color is strongly affected by the pH of the soil in which they are growing. The bluest shades are always produced on the most acidic soils. A pH range of 5.0 to 5.5 is listed as satisfactory for inducing blue coloration while pH of 6.0 to 6.5 and probably slightly higher is best for pink coloration. |
| Growth Rate | |
| Hardiness Range | zone 6a – 8b *need help finding your hardiness zone? |
| Leaves | Leaves are opposite, simple, obovate to elliptic or broad-ovate, 4 to 8 inches long, two-thirds as wide, short-acuminate, broad cuneate at base, coarsely serrate with triangular obtusish teeth, lustrous medium above, rather fleshy texture and greasy to the touch, and glabrous or slightly puberulous beneath |
| Plant Type | |
| Primary Features | |
| Size | 4-6 feet tall at maturity with equal spread |
| Sun Requirement |
What am I buying?
We sell Nikko Blue Hydrangeas as rooted cuttings. Taken from Wikipedia, “a plant cutting is a piece of a plant that is used in horticulture for vegetative (asexual) propagation. A piece of the stem or root of the source plant is placed in a suitable medium such as moist soil. If the conditions are suitable, the plant piece will begin to grow as a new plant independent of the parent, a process known as striking.” Put more simply, a rooted cutting is a small clone of the specimen from which it was taken. As a genetically identical clone, the cutting shares all the characteristic traits and attributes of the cultivated variety. Our rooted cuttings are 3-6 months old and 4-8 inches in stem length above the soil line. They are clipped from our private stock plants and grown in root pruning trays at our temperature controlled greenhouse.
When are plants collected?
Once your order is placed, your plants will be collected as soon as the weather permits. This time-frame is normally within 3-7 days. During heavy order periods (April-May), this collection time can grow to 10-14 days.
How are plants shipped?
All shipments are mailed via USPS Priority Mail using PirateShip.com. We monitor national weather conditions and temperatures for shipments. If at any time your order must be delayed for weather concerns, we will contact you by phone and/or email. The day that your order is completed or partially shipped, you will receive an email containing your package tracking number. You can also find this updated information by logging into your account on our website.
