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Hydrangea Airlie Blue is a relatively young variety, bred by Dutch breeders in 2006. The hallmarks of this variety are lush flowering, longevity and good disease resistance. The frost resistance of the variety is average.
Description of Hydrangea Airlie Blue
Hydrangea large-leaved Early Blue (Early Blue) is a medium-sized ornamental shrub with a spherical crown type. In height, the plant can reach 100-120 cm, the diameter of the bushes is also about 120 cm. The life expectancy of the plant is 18-20 years.
Hydrangea Airley Blue blooms on last year’s shoots and shoots of the current year, forming lush spherical inflorescences. The size of each of them can reach 20-30 cm. The color of the flowers varies from blue to purple-pink, and flowering lasts from July to September.
The leaves of the Earley Blue variety are large, serrated along the edges. The surface of the leaf plate is smooth to the touch, shiny. The color is dark green.
The flowers of the variety are collected in fairly dense inflorescences.
Hydrangea Airlie Blue in landscape design
The scope of the variety is quite universal. Hydrangea Airlie Blue is perfect for both solitary plantings and for group compositions. Shrubs can be grown in ridges and rockeries.
A distinctive feature of the Earley Blue variety is a developed root system. This quality allows you to plant it in containers, which are cleaned indoors for the winter.
The base of the flower bed can be planted with undersized crops that will act as a border
Winter hardiness of hydrangea Airlie Blue
The winter hardiness of this horticultural crop is average. Hydrangea Airlie Blue winters safely in regions with a warm climate without shelter, however, in the middle and northern latitudes, it is better to cover the bushes with the onset of cold weather.
You can cover the plantings with spruce branches and agrofibre, after tying the shoots together. Young seedlings are sprinkled with fallen leaves and sawdust. Older plants sometimes need to be bent to the ground, but this should be done very carefully so as not to break the shoots.
Planting and caring for large-leaved hydrangea Airlie Blue
The process of planting Airlie Blue hydrangea includes the most standard procedures. Caring for the plant is also easy – the whole process comes down to timely watering and top dressing. Once or twice a season, the bushes should be cut.
Selection and preparation of the landing site
Preference should be given to well-lit areas, but the plants should not be under the scorching sun all day. The shrub grows best in moderate shade.
The recommended soil type is acidic and semi-acidic. The high content of lime in the soil can provoke the development of a number of diseases.
A few weeks before planting hydrangeas, it is recommended to dig up the area selected for the flower bed and adjust its composition. To do this, a mixture of humus, peat, leafy soil and river sand is introduced into the soil in a ratio of 2: 1: 2: 1.
If the soil acidity is higher than 4, the seedlings will form pink flowers. In order for them to be blue, the soil is acidified with potassium alum once a week. You can also change the color of the flowers by adding iron filings to the near-stem circle.
Rules of landing
Hydrangea Airlie Blue is planted according to the following scheme:
- First, a hole is dug about 50 cm deep and about 40 cm in diameter.
- If the soil in the area is clayey, then drainage must be placed at the bottom of the dug pit: small pebbles, expanded clay, broken bricks.
- Then the pit is filled with a mixture of fallen needles, humus, high-moor peat and light garden soil in a ratio of 1:1:2:2. If before that the site was dug up with the addition of fertilizers, the amount of garden soil in this composition is increased to half of the total volume.
- After that, the hydrangea seedling is lowered into a container of water for a couple of hours.
- The prepared planting material must be placed in the center of the pit so that its neck is not very deep. The root system is sprinkled with the remnants of the soil mixture.
- Then the region of the near-stem circle is lightly tamped so that the roots are well pressed, and voids do not form around them.
- The soil compacted under the plant is generously watered.
- Complete the planting procedure with mulching. To do this, use fallen needles, wood chips or peat.
Recommended planting pattern for hydrangea – 1×1 m
Watering and top dressing
In order for the Earley Blue variety to bloom magnificently, the shrub needs a lot of moisture – the soil around the plant should not dry out and crack. Otherwise, they are guided by local climatic conditions. In this case, it is best to take settled rainwater from a barrel standing in the sun for watering hydrangeas.
Too hard water is softened with a small amount of citric acid.
If the hydrangea has formed pink flowers, the water for irrigation is diluted with potassium alum (5 g of the substance per 2 liters of water). You can also use special compounds for acidifying the soil.
Effectively oxidizes soil Acid plus
The first top dressing of the Earley Blue variety is carried out in the spring. For these purposes, it is better to use special mineral complexes designed for hydrangeas. The second feeding is carried out during the flowering period. The third – in September, shortly before the end of flowering. Additionally, humus can be poured under the hydrangea.
If pink flowers are preferable to blue, then maintaining the alkalinity of the soil will help to preserve it. To do this, wood ash is poured under the bushes and plantings are watered with a solution based on dolomite flour.
Pruning hydrangea large-leaved Early Blue
The first 2-3 years, it is better not to cut the hydrangea. Only dead branches are removed.
When the bushes grow up, pruning is carried out to the first living bud, cutting off the old inflorescences that were left to winter. According to the season, it is better to form a hydrangea in the spring.
Preparation for winter
Preparations for the winter season begin with spraying the bushes with Bordeaux liquid – this will prevent the plants from drying out under cover. Then they act like this:
- The area near the trunk circle is sprinkled with peat, so that a small hill is formed.
- Spruce branches are placed on this elevation.
- If the shoots of the shrub are high, then they must be carefully bent to the ground and securely fixed in place. To do this, you can use a wire frame.
- A non-woven material is placed on top of the bent branches and sprinkled with compost soil.
- To protect against precipitation, the hydrangea is covered with roofing material.
If the branches near the bush have become too rigid, and it is no longer possible to bend them, it is better to tie them together, shifting them with spruce branches. Then this bundle is wrapped with agrofibre and film.
Reproduction
The Airlie Blue variety is propagated by dividing the bush, layering, root offspring and summer cuttings. One of the easiest breeding methods is the creation of layering.
The whole process in this case looks like this:
- In the first days of May, several rather flexible branches are bent away from an adult bush.
- The ends of the shoots are fixed in a small depression on the ground. Additionally, they are fixed in a bent position with small metal staples. The hole should be about 15 cm deep.
- Where the shoots are in contact with the ground, the leaves are scraped off them. It is also recommended to scrape this section of the branches with a knife in order to “start” the process of root formation.
- After that, the hole is covered with earth.
From time to time, layering is watered, carefully maintaining soil moisture. By autumn, they should form their root system, then they are cut off and planted for wintering in containers. Landing on a permanent place is carried out in the spring of next year.
Diseases and pests
Hydrangea Airlie Blue is sick infrequently, but occasionally plantings can infect fungus, infectious diseases and pests.
If the leaves of the shrub suddenly began to turn yellow, but the veins on them remain green, this means that the plantings were struck by chlorosis.
Additional symptoms:
- twisting the leaves along the edge;
- falling leaves;
- bud deformation;
- drying of shoots at the ends.
Chlorosis hydrangea develops if the shrub was planted in an area with alkaline soil. To eliminate the symptoms, it is necessary to increase the acidity of the soil with solutions with the addition of potassium nitrate.
Ferrous vitriol can be used to treat chlorosis.
Downy Mildew – Another dangerous disease that the Airlie Blue variety is vulnerable to. You can determine the disease by oily spots on hydrangea leaves, which eventually become yellow in color. In the later stages of the disease, the affected areas of the leaf plate darken.
Treatment of plantings is carried out using any fungicidal agents
If the shrub suddenly began to turn yellow, you should carefully examine the leaves of the plant from the underside. If they are covered with a thin cobweb, then the flower bed was struck by a spider mite. Any insecticide from a gardening store will help to cope with the pest.
Well proven in the fight against spider mites Actellik
Conclusion
Hydrangea Airlie Blue is a very unpretentious shrub with medium frost resistance, which is perfect for planting in central Our Country. The inflorescences of the variety can be used for cutting and making dry bouquets.
For more information on how to grow Airlie Blue hydrangea, see the video:
