How to Care for White Wedding Hydrangeas

If you’re a flower person like me, then you probably love how easy hydrangeas are to take care of. Aside from their easy maintenance, I love the look of them. They provide a huge bloom per stem which allows them to look full with fewer flowers. One of my favorite types of hydrangeas is the white wedding hydrangea. The neutral color of the white also allows them to be styled in any room throughout your house. If you have a self-proclaimed black thumb, these are the perfect bloom to start out with because you don’t have to fuss over them too much. They make great cut flowers and dried arrangements. Today we’re chatting all things on how to care for white wedding hydrangeas.

How to Care for White Wedding Hydrangeas

Instead of buying hydrangeas from the store, planting hydrangeas allows you to enjoy the fruits of your labor year after year. In fact, that’s my favorite part about having a hydrangea plant because I can continuously cut them off the bush and bring them inside for styling throughout my home. They provide beautiful blooms from midsummer to fall without much work.

How to Plant a Hydrangea Flower

Hydrangeas can grow in most climates throughout the United States as long as they’re planted in well-drained soil, but continually receiving moisture. The White Wedding Hydrangea can be planted in a range of USDA zones and they’re cold-hardy in zones 4a-9b. They tolerate both shade and sun, which is another bonus to these beauties. However, white wedding hydrangeas tend to enjoy a little more sun than shade.

When you’re planting the hydrangea in the ground to come back each year, you want to dig about 2 feet in width around the plant roots, and no deeper than the length of the actual roots. Be sure to loosen the roots before putting into the ground. You’ll want to put a thin layer of mulch or compost around the base of the plant. This will provide moisture-rich soil for the flower to thrive. Then, you’ll want to give it a nice, long drink after you fill the rest of the hole with soil.

It’s also a good idea to keep the center of the stem a bit higher out of the ground than the rest of the plant, so water is able to drain away from it. This makes it easier to care for your white wedding hydrangea down the road. That first season of planting, you’ll want to be sure to water the plant often.

Much like planting white wedding hydrangeas in the ground, planting them in a pot is much the same. However, planted pots tend to dry out faster, so be aware of that. Also, avoid overcrowding and give the roots room to grow. Finally, watch out for black spots, which will be mean you have fungus from poor drainage.

Pruning White Wedding Hydrangeas

There are different pruning methods for different types of hydrangeas. Though pruning isn’t completely necessary, I’ve found there’s a few universal practices that will help your hydrangea maintain beautiful growth throughout the season.

• Cut any weak or dead-looking stems off the base of the plant
• Throughout the season, you can prune mature hydrangeas off. You’ll want to be sure they almost feel like paper before trimming.
• Trim in between the mature bloom and where you see flowering leaves. Your next hydrangea bloom will grow right above those leaves.
• At the end of the fall season, cut any dried hydrangea blooms off just below the bloom.
• Panicle hydrangeas like White Wedding bloom on new wood and can be pruned in winter or early spring before new growth emerges.

How to Style White Wedding Hydrangeas

There’s something so exciting about bringing your first batch of fresh hydrangeas inside for styling. I love styling them in large vases but they don’t always have a long stem. I like to put towels along the bottom of a large vase, then put a smaller vase within the large vase and on top of the towels. Then put the hydrangeas in the small vase.

I really love the look of all white hydrangeas, but you could mix and match all different kinds of colored hydrangeas in a vase. If you’re only growing one color, pick a different color up at your local market. I love the look of mixing white with a deep purple or a green hydrangea.

You know what gets sad though? When they start to wilt in your vase. BUT I have a great method I’ve been using for years to revive them, and get more time out of those beautiful blooms.

• Submerge entire flower in a water bath for at least an hour.
• Make sure you’re cutting your stems at an angle and use a sharp knife or shears.
• Pour hot, hot water in a vase and place stems in it for 15 minutes, they’ll perk up.
• Dip end of stem in the chemical compound – alum – for longer-lasting stems. I get the brand McCormick for the alum.
• Then place your flowers back in your desired vase.

Hopefully this post gave you the confidence to go plant a hydrangea plant. They’re so beautiful when they’re in bloom and will keep you smiling for many seasons to come.