Hydrangeas make good houseplants flowering in spring from a shop bought plant. Hydrangea have been successfully grown as blooming house plants for many years. They are colourful full of flower and relatively trouble free if you give them a good drink of water regularly. Keep plants cool between 50-60 ° F when in flower but give them some good light.

Indoor Hydrangea Tips

• Buy a new plant each year and plant the old one in the garden when it has finished flowering. It may not be hardy enough to survive but getting it to reflower indoors will mean you have to emulate the seasonal conditions it would expect in the wild.

• To buy a good hydrangea for indoors look for a plant with just a few blooms showing color and lots of buds still developing. The plant should fill out the pot with healthy dark green leaves.

• Dry air can cause wilting and damage and Hydrangeas need copious amounts of water when in flower. An occasional heavy misting will remove most of the dust that accumulates on the large leaves.
• Keep Hydrangeas away from drafts, heat sources and strong sunshine through your windows.
• While they are actively growing and blooming, they should be fed every other week with a half-strength water-soluble fertilizer. When they are resting in  Autumn only feed once a month with the same weak solution.
• Hydrangea do well in a quality peat-based potting soil but acid soil creates blue plants and for blue fred or pink flowers the soil needs to be neutral or alkaline. You may need a colourant based on Aluminium sulphate to change the color of your flowers for next season.
• Propagate Hydrangeas by cuttings taken from non-flowering growth.

Hydrangeas available from Thompson & Morgan

See Help to change Hydrangea colour