what has happened to my Hydrangea?

[dizzydo]

Any ideas why my beautiful white hydrangea has gone a very wishy shade of pink. I am pretty sure I read somewhere it is something to do with the soil but I am sure one (or more) of you clever lot on here are bound to know???

TIA

or "wishy washy" even

Yes, they are blue or purple in acid soils and red or pink in alkaline soils - a white one must be somehow PH neutral or something.

Any idea how I can make the soil PH neutral again Squarer. I have had it for about five years now and it has only this year gone slightly pink.

Do you know what variety of hydrangea it is?

Oh look! You're stuffed. You have an old white hydrangea here

ours is kinda pinky purple. DP's grandad says if you put a copper coin in the soil where it's planted, it will have a different colour the next year (sure he said it would be blue instead).

Have you been watering it with tap water at all, and is your tap water hard? That may have changed the soil that it's planted in. I know that plants that like ericaceous (acid) soil like blueberries should only be watered with rain water in hard water areas as the lime in the tap water will turn the soil alkeline.

Ooh, loads of spelling mistakes, but I don't care!

oops, sorry for ignoring you, I got involved in reading another thread about rich friends!

LOL Squarer, bit like its owner then! I wouldnt have said five years was that old but maybe its more than that so hard to remember when you plant things I find.

Good point about the tap water Bran. Although I have always used tap. Having said that I have had to chuck buckets and buckets on it at the moment due to the weather and am in London so definitely hard water. Not sure where to find rain water at the moment tho

You need a water butt dizzydo. Actually you needed to have bought a water butt 5 years ago when you bought the hydrangea, or at least before this current water shortage made everyone panic buy water butts.

True Bran, very true.
Wishy washy pink hydrangea it is then

I have a white hydrangea and I've never used tap water on it [smug emoticon] but this year it looks very wrong somehow and hasn't bloomed very much. I suspect that it may be a grafted plant and the original root stock is taking over and the graft is dying off. It's a bit vulnerable to cold/drought as it's in a container and my terrace is very exposed, it's never really been a happy plant. If your hydrangea has been healthy since you bought it then I think my water theory might the cause.

FWIW I've noticed that this year, presumably because of odd unseasonal weather, some plants have thrived (eg lilac and hawthorn) and some haven't (eg flowering cherry). It may just be a bad year for hydrangea - wait and see what it does next year, dd

(and bran!)

Bran - the link says that White Hydrangeas can not be changed to pink or blue by the grower, but sometimes mother nature adds a tinge of pink or red as the plant ages, so I wouldn't worry about your water source