Secrets to endless garden colour!

Hydrangea and bougainvillea guarantee endless summer colour and all gardeners love that… 

Magnificent mopheads 

The modern range Hydrangea macrophylla ‘Endless Summer’ flowers on new stems as well as on a previous season’s growth, meaning a repeated and prolonged performance from October to April. These plants have a resilient, rounded growth habit with glossy, dark green leaves and are hardy to cold winter conditions. The mature size is generally about 90 cm x 150 cm. Look out for ‘Blue’, ‘Blushing Bride’ (with white flowers), ‘Bloomstar’ (vivid purple or rose pink) and ‘Love’ (pink blooms). 

Growth Tips

Being deciduous, Hydrangea macrophylla is cold-hardy and will survive frost if protected with frost cloth. 

• They grow well at the coast if protected and will do quite well indoors for a while when in bloom.

• In the garden, plant in morning sun and afternoon shade. 

• Supply compost-enriched soil which drains well, and always mulch with leaf mould or bark chips. 

• Water regularly at the soil level. 

Bougainvilleas – warriors against heat 

Many hybrids were developed from the vigorous species indigenous to Southeast America, and the papery bracts come in many colours. 

Good to know:

• Bougainvilleas need a maximum of six hours of bright sun to flower well, like a sun-baked north-facing wall. 

• Keep the soil moist until you see the first signs of new growth. Then, allow the soil to dry out before watering again.

• Feed in spring, mid-summer and autumn with a slow-releasing fertiliser high in potassium, and mulch afterwards with a fresh layer of compost. Do not overfeed, as this will encourage leaf growth and few flowers.

• They flower on new growth. If they become too vigorous, they can be pruned after a flowering flush. Young plants can be trained into bushy specimens if you keep pinching out the stem’s growth points at first. 

Best survival tip

Bougainvilleas do not like disturbed roots and should never be callously plucked from their nursery bags. Place the plant (still in its nursery container) in position at the correct planting depth, and then slit the container carefully down its side to remove it before filling up the hole or pot with soil. The less you disturb it, the better!