My $1 Hydrangea!!

[MaryMary]

Oh, how I love a bargain!! I found it in a trash bin, flowers mostly brown and crunchy, without a pot, but it looked healthy enough to me! I asked the man if it was trash, and he said, "Tell ya what, you can have it for a dollar." I have always wanted one, but wasn't going to spend $20+ on a plant I would have to leave when I move. So I have not done any reading about hydrangeas. I know that they like mostly shaded spots, but that's about all I know. ANY advice is most welcome.

Some of leaves are a little worse for wear, but it looks fairly healthy.

From looking at what's left, it seems to have both pale blue and pale green flowers.

New little leaves coming up in places!

Should I cut off the dead blooms?

 

[marlingardener]

May I go dumpster diving with you sometime? That is a wonderful find, and you are right, it looks healthy enough to be salvaged. I'd cut off the dead blooms, loosen up the root ball a bit, and plunk it in a big pot so you can take it with you when you move. One dollar hydrangeas are rare!

 

[alp]

May I go dumpster diving with you sometime? That is a wonderful find, and you are right, it looks healthy enough to be salvaged. I'd cut off the dead blooms, loosen up the root ball a bit, and plunk it in a big pot so you can take it with you when you move. One dollar hydrangeas are rare!

Agree totally to both dumpster driving and hydrangea care!

I often ask my son to stop so that I can plunder something from someone's skip! No, he would have none of it!

Yes, mg is right. Chop off the dead blooms and sink the whole pot in water for a few hours and add a bit of feed. I am sure the plant will appreciate it. Remove inward growing stems might also help. Just chop off the dead bits on the tips and remove diseased leaves, and you should have a very happy plant.

All my hydrangeas are now showing buds. Wonder if it would be too late for this this year.

This is from our rhs. Hope it is helpful

How to prune hydrangeas


Dead-heading

• Dead blooms on mophead hydrangeas can, in mild areas, be removed just after flowering, but it is best to leave them on the plant over winter to provide some frost protection for the tender growth buds below. Remove the dead flowerheads in early spring, cutting back the stem to the first strong, healthy pair of buds down from the faded bloom
• Lacecaps are hardier, and the faded flowerheads can be cut back after flowering to the second pair of leaves below the head in order to prevent seed developing, which saps energy from the plant
  

Pruning established mopheads and lacecaps

• Cut out one or two of the oldest stems at the base to encourage the production of new, replacement growth that will be more floriferous
• Poor or neglected plants can be entirely renovated by cutting off all the stems at the base. However, this will remove all the flowers for that summer, and the new stems will not bloom until the following year

Pruning climbing hydrangeas

• The climbing hydrangea (H. anomala subsp. petiolaris) should have overlong shoots cut back immediately after flowering. Most flowers appear towards the top of the plant, so try to leave as much of this un-pruned as possible
• Established plants will tolerate hard pruning in spring, but extensive cutting back all in one go is likely to reduce flowering for the next couple of summers. To prevent flower loss, stagger drastic pruning over three or four years, reducing the size of the plant gradually

Pruning other hydrangeas

• Hydrangea serrata can be pruned in the same way as mophead and lacecap hydrangeas
• Hydrangea paniculata and H. arborescens are treated differently. Although the only essential work is to remove dead wood in spring, these species flower more prolifically when pruned back annually to a framework of branches. Each spring, cut back last year’s stems to a pair of healthy buds to maintain a permanent framework. To produce larger flower panicles on strong, upright branches, hard prune to the lowest pair of healthy buds, creating a low framework of branches. This usually results in a pruned framework of no more than 25cm (10in) high but, if more height is required, cut to about 60cm (2ft) tall
• Most other hydrangea species, including H. aspera, H. aspera Villosa Group, H. quercifolia and H. sargentiana, need only minimal pruning in spring to remove dead and over-long stems

Problems

• If there is any frost damage in spring, prune back damaged shoots to just above the first undamaged pair of buds on live, healthy wood
• Also remove any weak, straggly stems. In particular, cut out any stems that trail onto the ground

 

[MaryMary]

How big of a pot should I put it in? For size reference, it is sitting on an upside-down 5 gallon bucket. The plant itself is about a foot high.


As to the dumpster diving, of course, you can both go with me!! Pro tip: When you go to the nursery/greenhouse, always look in the trash cans!

 

[alp]

I remember watching The Beechgrove Garden, the lady presenter said up to a certain size, one couldn't really upsize any more. What she recommended was to remove some soil and add some new compost, especially on top. In the process, you could add some slow release fertiliser pellets mixed in the compost.

I am no expert, so take it with a pinch of salt, with a bit of your own good sense and knowledge thrown in!

 

[marlingardener]

How big a pot, MaryMary? At least twice as big as it was once in. It looks as if it was in a gallon pot, so I'd plunk it into a three or even five gallon pot. With your loving care it will grow rapidly.
Let it settle in, and then add a bit of fertilizer. I like to use the "blue water" at half-strength for plants that have been stressed. Slow-release will work also, but with the water/fertilizer you can control how much feed the plant is getting.
(Blue water means any granular fertilizer that you add to water for plants, like Miracle-Gro)