May Landscapes – How to make your Hydrangeas blue!

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How to make your Hydrangeas blue!
North Texas soils cause blooms to become pink


One of the more interesting things I see in the North Texas region is growing Hydrangeas.

Customers go into a DFW nursery, see “Endless Summer” Hydrangeas with blue flowers shown on the large tag. They purchase the plant thinking they will have blue flowers. They take them home and plant them in their garden or flower bed.

Then the blooming time for Hydrangeas comes along and instead of seeing clusters of blue flowers, they see clusters of pink flowers. Why did this happen? Did I get the wrong plant? The nursery tag showed a cluster of blue flowers, not pink.

No, you didn’t buy the wrong plant. You simply planted it in North Texas soil. Our soil here is high alkaline, which causes a Hydrangea bloom to be pink. The same plant grown in East Texas’ acidic soils will be blue.

So the bloom color is entirely dependent on the soil’s pH.



If you have Hydrangeas in your landscape here in North Texas, you can make your Hydrangea blooms be blue instead of pink. We do this by altering the soil pH using products that are designed to make that happen.

There are several ways of altering the soil pH. You can use spent coffee grounds, dispersing them around the root ball area of the plant. Compost teas sold in the marketplace will also cause the soil pH to be more acidic, such as Howard Garrett’s “Garrett Juice.”

For myself, I like having some control over what I do in the landscape. A product called Aluminum Sulfate in a granular format does the trick and gives me that control. I simply apply the product in light doses, beginning in February and done every two weeks through the Spring until blooming season is over. Again, apply over the root ball area of the plant.

If your blooms start to come out and you still see some pink, just apply at a stronger dosage.

Once you apply, water it in immediately as granular products begin degenerating once you put it down.

In North Texas, it is best to plant Hydrangeas on the east or north side of your home with filtered sun to mostly shaded areas. Those grown in East Texas have more plentiful rainfall and higher humidity with which to keep the plant “hydrated” (hence the name “Hydrangea). But in North Texas, we get less rainfall and have far less humidity so we must be very careful about where we locate them in our landscape.

The same holds true for Azaleas, Gardenias, and even Roses. All of the are plants that need their soil to be acidic. So regular applications of the Aluminum Sulfate will help those plants remain healthy and growing. Plant your Azaleas and Gardenias on the east and north side of the home, just as we talked about with Hydrangeas. Roses require full sun, however. Plant them on the south or west side of the home.

Hydrangeas are a water hog plant. Heck, it’s in the name of the plant “hydra” which means water. Hydrangeas are one of the plants in our landscape world that will literally tell you when they need water – as the whole plant will droop, looking tired and depleted when they are thirsty. When watering them, you will want to give them more water than other plants for this reason. If they are drooping and you give them water, they will return to an upright stance within an hour or two.

What Fruit trees grow best in North Texas?

In the past several years, we’ve seen a lot of newcomers to North Texas, moving in from other regions and other countries. I am often asked by them what fruit trees they could plant and grow successfully here. Try as you may, there are fruit tree varieties that just don’t work here. Apple trees, Orange trees don’t really have a chance here. But there are several varieties that do grow well here.

Here are a few that are successful in North Texas

1. Pear Trees – Bartlett Pear trees do very well here and grow excellent fruit. They tolerate our high alkaline soil very well. Once planted, they will last many years. When they bear fruit, there can be so many pears growing on it that the limbs will almost touch the ground due to the weight (and number) of the fruit. Do not harvest your pears until they are ripe. You will be able to tell the ripeness by the feel of the fruit. It should be just slightly squishy when you harvest. Before you harvest, try one to make sure.

When purchasing, make sure you’re getting a Bartlett Pear or other fruit-bearing pear tree. Stay away from the fruitless pear trees such as the Bradford or Cleveland Pears.




2. Peach Trees – Certain varieties of Peach Trees will do well here, namely the Redhaven Peach. Make sure this is what you get before you buy. If you’re in Central or South Texas, Tropic Beauty is a variety that does well there. When planting, you will want to dig a much wider hole (not deeper than the rootball) and dispose of the black clay you remove from the hole. In its place, use a sandy loam type of soil mixed with compost and topsoil for best results.

3. Fig Trees – One of the easiest fruit trees to grow in Texas. They love the Texas heat and are very low maintenance. These are full sun trees and are very drought tolerant after their first year in the ground. Fruit will begin appearing after the 2nd year.

Look for varieties such as Brown Turkey, Texas Everbearing or Celeste for best results.

4. Plum Trees – These can be planted across most of the state and do fairly well here in North Texas. I also recommend a sandy loam/topsoil/compost combination when planting these. Once planted, you can expect fruit within a couple of years. Be careful though. Birds like plums as much as we do so you may need to cover the canopies with netting when fruit is on the tree.

The Plum is a tree that produces more fruit when another Plum Tree or two are living nearby. Look for Bruce and Methley varieties when purchasing.

5. Pomegranate Trees – This tree loves the hot, dry Texas summer weather. They are very drought tolerant and low maintenance. Plant in full sun and you’ll see fruit appear in 2 to 3 years.



Jujube fruit ripening on the tree.

6. Jujube Trees – One of the toughest trees around, they handle heat, drought, poor soil and neglect best than most any other fruit tree in Texas. Their fruit tastes sweet and crisp, much like an apple. This is another tree variety which produces best when they are planted in pairs or threes.

7. Persimmon Trees – Very low maintenance trees thrive in most areas of the state. They are native to Texas and planting native varieties is preferable. They are able to handle our coldest winters and hottest summers. They produce juicy orange fruit in the Fall.

Trees that should not be attempted here include Loquat, Apples and citrus trees such as Orange, Grapefruit and Lemon Trees. All of these varieties can be grown successfully further south of us.