If I buy a potted blue hydrangea, can I keep it alive in a pot, or must it be planted?

I saw a beautiful potted blue hydrangea, and was wondering if I bought it, could I keep it alive in a pot, or must it be planted? If it can be kept alive in a pot, how? I live in an apartment (with a cat) and very little light. Do they need to be outside/inside? When it is winter, do they die, or will they come back?


Thanks!

If I buy a potted blue hydrangea, can I keep it alive in a pot, or must it be planted?
you can keep it in the pot. i suggest getting a new plater for it that is a few inches larger than what the store sold it in.


they tend to get root bound in the pot... when you replant them give the roots a lil kneeding and pulling to loosen the roots up. put it in the new pot and put potting soil in the pot up to the top of the plant.


water it and presto new home happy plant.
Reply:I've had great luck planting them outside, they are close to the house, and are doing great. We are in upstate New York and it gets quit cold her, but they have survived for 10 years.


The one thing that I saw in an other posting is the color, ours do change color depending on the acidity of the soil. A friend of mine, to keep hers blue pours all her pickle juice on the when ever she finishes a jar. It seems to work great.
Reply:Pretty much any non-tropical plant is going to be happier outside so if you have a balcony or patio, that's the place to put it. That said, if you don't, Hydrangeas adapt quite easily to many light conditions and some varieties even tolerate full shade. As long as it is near a window, I'm sure it will be okay. I've never tried to keep one indoors so I don't know how they do over winter at indoor temperatures. As an outdoor plant, they are best if cut back to about 18" above the soil in the winter once the leaves fall off. Too severe a cutback and you won't get any blooms the following spring... too little a cutback and you will end up with a really gangly looking plant with flimsy stems.





As a final note, Hydrangeas are unique in that they can be pink, white or blue or all three at once. The colour of the blossoms is determined by the pH of the soil. If your soil is acidic (%26lt;6.2pH) the blossoms will be toward the pink end of things. If your soil is pH neutral (around 7) the blossoms will be white and if your soil is alkaline (%26gt;7.8pH) then your blossoms are going to be blue.





To make your soil more acidic, grab some needles that have fallen around the base of a coniferous tree (Pine, Fir, Hemlock, Spruce, etc) and add the decomposing needles to your soil and water it in. If you want to make your soil more alkaline, find someone with a bag of lime (the white powder people spread on lawns or draw lines on sports fields with) and add SMALL amounts of it to the soil. This will help keep that really deep blue colour if that's what you like. Most potting soil naturally goes more acidic with repeated waterings as water keeps soil microbes alive and decomposing the organic humus in the soil--the waste byproduct coming off the microbes is acidic and accumulates over time.
Reply:I'm not a green thumb but I can tell you from personal experience that every year I had to run out and buy a new one but the year before last, I planted it in a pot and put it in the shade under a huge tree in the back yard. I must say, I was so excited when it came back last Spring. Today, I noticed that it is already showing green sprigs on the stems. (It looks dead when it is dorment)





PS: It is truly maintenance free exept you may have to fertilize to keep your blooms a bursting with color.
Reply:these are OK to keep inside for a short while, when the blooms fade then it is better to plant it out in a sunny place, it will grow for many years that way.





When all the leaves come off then it is time to trim it, you can cut it down to the first set of buds this will make it more bushy next year. keep feeding it every 3 months with a general fertilizer


good luck - you will have many good years from this plant and when in flower you can cut them and take them inside in a vase
Reply:if you keep replanting it, they grow to be a very large bush fast.