Gardeners’ World: Monty Don on growing hydrangeas
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Monty Don returned last night for another episode of BBC Gardeners’ World. The gardening expert shared a plethora of tips including how to cut back raspberry canes and how to collect seeds from certain flowers. Later on in the show, Monty shared his tips for planting hydrangeas.
He said: “Hydrangeas are wonderful. They’re fantastic.
“I’ve got quite a few growing here in the garden.
“This, for example, is Lanarth White.
“You can see it’s got this fantastic, white touched with blue in the centre.”
Lanarth White is also known as hydrangea macrophylla.
Monty said hydrangeas prefer moist soil rather than dry, sandy soil.
He added: “What hydrangeas like, and why they like here, and I’m not sure they’ll be happy on the sort of bright, sunny, sandy soil is light woodland shade and moisture.
“What they really hate is drying out.”
The gardening expert showed viewers a hydrangea plant which was a cutting he took last autumn.
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He continued: “It’s probably the best known hydrangea of the lot, it’s called Annabelle.
“I’ve got it growing in the border here.
“Great big flower heads that flower and flower for months and it’s grown fine.
“It’s looking a bit yellow because it’s getting a bit constructed and I was going to plant it but a small cutting or a small seedling can struggle for light in particular but also for nutrients.
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“So what I’m going to do instead is pot it on, grow it on and I will plant it out next year.”
Hydrangea arborescens also known as “Annabelle” flowers from around July to September.
The shrub likes moist, well-drained soil in full sun to partial shade.
The plants are very hardy but late frosts could damage the gifs so it’s best to grow them in a sheltered corner.
They need regular pruning to ensure they remain dense.
Hydrangea “Annabelle” can be toxic to cats, dogs and horses so be mindful where you’re planting it out.
Gardeners’ World is available to stream on BBC iPlayer
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