BLUE Hydrangeas for Fourth of July Display

I wanted to cut some flowers that were red white and blue for the holiday.  Not a lot in my garden is blue!  However my hydrangea is sporting blue flowers this season and I took advantage of that.  I added Hydrangea lace cap flowers that have faded to white and since the forms of both gave me an impression of fireworks, I went with some tassels of bottle brush.  I added some red ivy geraniums for just a bit more red.

Now why am I sharing this?  Not because I made a haphazard arrangement for our BBQ.  The Hydrangea macrophylla that is blue was done over a five year period.  I started adding acid to the soil with very little change about 5 years ago.  I now realize I was not adding nearly enough.

First of all you have to fix the pH of the soil BEFORE buds are formed for next season.  Next, using organic acid soil amendment I actually put a lot more on the soil than instructed.  With a soil test from the home improvement store, I found out I was doing this transition really slowly before. 

The first couple years I got a little raspberry marbling in the pink flowers.  It was very interesting; however, my goal was blue.  Last year was actually very striking in colors on one plant.  I had full pink flowers and a lot that on one ball had pink variations of raspberry to some blue.  It was rather pretty.  I added more organic acid amendment and finally this year the flowers are predominately blue.  Success!  Although I have to admit I miss the raspberry marbled affect.  I think my next goal is to see if I can condition for that affect and if I succeed, I have to take a picture!