2years ago i bought a Hydrangea wi gorgeous deep pink/red flowers. How can i rep

*2years ago i bought a Hydrangea wi gorgeous deep pink/red flowers. How can i repeat the colour?
*i live in NW uk. 2years ago i bought a Hydrangea wi gorgeous deep pink/red flowers. How can i Its growing well in a large container. Last year it was a slightly lighter pink with a bit of blue.
Now its just bloomed but the deep redness from before is disparearing. Ive read lots that you have to acid the soil for blue and use alkaline for pink flowers. But how did my plant get its nice red colours from 2years ago? Also what do you use to check the ph values of soil (acidness)-is there equipment to buy?

If it was very pink/red a couple years ago and now it's turning bluer, that means the pH of the soil it's in has been drifting lower over time. It must have been alkaline when you got it, but now it's drifting down. Chances are the grower knew it looked its best at alkaline pH so they added lime or something to get just the perfect color, but over time as that lime washes out the pH can go back down again. So if you want it back where it was, you'll have to amend with some lime or something else that'll increase your pH. I don't know what's available over there for testing pH, but over here there are pH meters that you can buy to stick in the soil, or little soil test kits where you mix the soil up with a chemical to tell you the pH. Here you can buy them at any nursery so I would run by your local nursery and see what they have.

If you can't find the test kits locally, Amazon sells soil test kits. www.amazon.co.uk

If you drink coffee, the used grounds will increase the acidity of soil. I don't know how much or how often to apply, but there's information on the web also. Some coffee houses, such as Starbucks, etc, will give you used grounds for the asking.

Good luck, I hope you get the color back.

coffee will make it blue not pink



you want lime to make it pink you want coffee and acid to make them blue.


LIMITATIONS TO
HYDRANGEA COLOR CHANGE:

1. WHITE HYDRANGEAS can NOT be changed to pink or blue by the grower. (The Almighty sometimes adds pink and red to blooms as they age).

2. If you live in a hot climate, it is unlikely you will ever see a "true red" hydrangea. No matter how convincing those pictures in the catalogs are or how much lime is added to the soil, one can only achieve a very deep or dark pink, but not a true red (at least here in the South. I'd love to hear from you if you have a different experience).

3. One can rarely change the intensity of a color (how strong or pale the color is). The intensity develops for a number of reasons: the heredity of a particular hydrangea variety, weather conditions (hot or cold, humid or dry), health of the plant, and possibly other natural factors. Fertilizing hydrangeas once or twice a year may result in a little more saturated color simply because the health of the plant may be improved.

4. A few varieties of hydrangeas tend more toward the pink or the blue range of colors, but will not retain even this color if soil conditions are not right. http://www.hydrangeashydrangeas.com/colorchange.html