Re: Hydrangeas

Square Foot Gardening List - http://www.flinet.com/~gallus/sqft.html
For those with hydrangea experience, a little off topic, please forgive me...
I bought a Nikko Blue hydrangea in 1995.  In the pot, it was an intense blue, and I've read it is supposed to be one that is fairly easy to keep blue.  However, by late in the season the first year it had started to go purple and then pink.  I read that you need to keep the soil very acidic for the blue color, so I moved it to it's own bed into which I put a lot of peat moss.  I've also fed it aluminum sulfate and miracid treatments.  Last year it was moving back from pink but still in the lavender to darker purple area.
 
This spring I cut it back hard so all the growth would be new and full of stuff from the acid treatments.  I remember the acidity of the soil was so a certain nutrient was available to the plant, but I can't remember what that nutrient was.  Perhaps my soil is lacking in it and the acidifying will never work.  Does anyone know what it is?  Iron, perhaps?
 
Erica
ps-My plant layered itself on it's own.  This spring I found a baby plant where a branch had drooped and sat on the ground for some time.  Maybe this means it's fairly easy to accomplish if you try to layer it on purpose.
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