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Hydrangea Anabel is an ornamental garden plant that looks good in landscape design. The shrub can decorate any area, and caring for it is quite simple, although it requires some effort.
Description of hydrangea variety Anabel
The shrub has a domed shape. The height of the treelike hydrangea Anabel is up to 1,5 m, the width of the bush is up to 2-3 m in diameter. The leaves of the plant are oval, up to 20 cm long, with pointed tips and jagged edges. Leaf plates grow very densely, and the dark green color is retained almost until the arrival of winter – this is one of the main advantages of the variety.
Anabel is valued for her huge spherical inflorescences.
Anabel is especially appreciated for its beautiful flowering. In the middle of summer, in July, it produces small flowers collected in large spherical inflorescences up to 25 cm in diameter. At the beginning of flowering, balls-inflorescences of a light green hue, but then they become bright white and remain so until autumn.
Anabel Pink – a variety of varieties, but not with white, but with pink flowers
Globular hydrangea Anabel can become a long-liver in the garden, its life cycle lasts about 45 years. The plant develops quite quickly, the annual growth can be up to 20 cm.
Hydrangea treelike Annabelle in landscape design
Gardeners love Anabel because this shrub looks attractive in almost any landscape. A low, but very sprawling and dense plant is used:
- to create single compositions;
- as an element of group landings;
- in the form of an unusual hedge;
- for decorating empty corners of the garden, for example, areas near walls and fences.
Hydrangea Anabel blooms until late autumn, it gives beautiful and bright white flowers. She continues to decorate the garden when all other plants have already finished flowering and even fly around before the approaching winter. The hydrangea looks attractive against the background of conifers, large white inflorescences emphasize the rich deep green of the conifers.
The plant is able to completely transform the landscape of the garden
Winter hardiness of hydrangea Anabel
Tree hydrangea has a very high frost resistance. The plant is able to withstand temperatures down to -40 ° C, so you can often find the Annabelle tree hydrangea in Siberia.
However, young hydrangeas are resistant to temperatures down to -20 ° C. More severe frosts are dangerous for them.
Planting and caring for hydrangea tree Annabelle
Hardy shrub does not have too strict care requirements. But it is necessary to get acquainted with the rules for growing a variety in order to provide Anabel with comfortable conditions.
For the plant you need to choose a sunny, but slightly shaded place.
Selection and preparation of the landing site
It is best to plant a tree-like Anabel in the spring, so that the plant is guaranteed to have time to adapt to the site before the onset of winter cold. A place for hydrangeas is chosen sunny, but with light shading – Anabel loves the light, but does not tolerate the scorching sun. You can plant a shrub under the cover of the wall of the house or next to tall trees. But at the same time, it is important to ensure that they do not take away moisture from the hydrangea, otherwise the plant will always lack nutrients.
In the selected area for hydrangeas, a landing hole is dug – about 50 cm deep and 40 cm wide. Anabel prefers fertile soils, so humus and peat are added to the extracted soil in equal parts. Also, sand should be added to the soil mixture, it will make the soil looser and provide good drainage.
Hydrangea loves moisture, but marshy soil is harmful to it. Therefore, when planting, you need to ensure that the drainage water passes deep enough, no closer than 1,5 m to the soil surface.
The shrub loves moisture, but the soil should not be waterlogged
How to plant hydrangea Anabel
Immediately before planting, the seedling is briefly lowered into water with a solution of potassium permanganate added to it. This will saturate the roots with moisture and at the same time disinfect them.
The landing algorithm looks like this:
- the landing hole is half filled with prepared nutrient soil, forming a small mound;
- the Anabel seedling is lowered into the prepared pit and the roots of the plant are straightened so that they lie neatly on the sides of the earthen mound;
- the remaining soil is poured into the hole, filling it entirely to the surface of the earth – the root collar of Anabel should slightly rise above the soil;
- the soil is lightly tamped so that it does not sag, and the young plant is watered abundantly.
Immediately after this, the trunk circle is mulched in a dense layer, otherwise the moisture will evaporate too quickly.
Usually, several bushes are planted on the site to form a decorative composition. The distance between individual plants should be at least 2 m, the gardener needs to remember that the shrub grows strongly in width.
The plant can be planted both in groups and alone
Watering and top dressing
Annabelle tree hydrangea loves moisture, but despite this, it is a drought-resistant plant. In the hot summer, it can patiently wait for watering, not fall off and die from lack of moisture. Nevertheless, it is recommended to water the shrub regularly, in which case the hydrangea will always be green and beautiful.
Watering is carried out in accordance with weather conditions. With the onset of spring and after the snow melts, you need to ensure that the soil in the near-stem circle does not dry out. It is recommended to keep the soil slightly moist for Anabel, and it is especially necessary to carefully control the amount of moisture during flowering. During this period, the plant needs the most nourishment and nutrients.
Young plants are advised to water more often during the period of active development. Hydrangea grows shoots and green mass, and water in sufficient quantities stimulates it to good growth.
As for dressings, they are not strictly required. But if you want to grow a truly sprawling and abundant flowering plant in the garden, then Anabel should be fertilized several times per season.
Feeding schedule:
- The first top dressing is traditionally carried out in early spring, even before the start of the growing season. Complex minerals are introduced into the soil – phosphorus, potassium, nitrogen. The latter element is especially important in the spring for hydrangeas, as it stimulates the growth of shoots and leaves.
- The second time the shrub is fed just before the buds open. During this period, phosphorus and potassium must be added to the soil, they will increase the endurance of the plant and ensure long and beautiful flowering.
- In summer, you need to feed Anabel once a month, you can use nitrophoska, diluted manure or chicken droppings, as well as complex minerals. Fertilizers will help prolong flowering and preserve the beauty of the plant until autumn.
Fertilizers provide the plant with more abundant flowering
In addition, in the summer Anabel is recommended to be treated with a solution of potassium permanganate, the remedy will prevent infection of the shrub with fungal diseases.
Fertilizing hydrangeas is also carried out in the fall. During this period, it is best to fertilize the shrub with potassium and phosphorus, as well as organic matter – peat and humus. But nitrogen can no longer be applied in the fall, it stimulates growth processes, which the plant does not need at all before wintering.
How to prune Annabelle Hydrangea
In landscape design, it is customary to trim hydrangeas regularly; without pruning, Anabel grows too chaotically and loses the silhouette’s accuracy. The procedure is carried out in the spring, before the start of active vegetation – the hydrangea shoots are cut by about 15 cm or by a third, giving it an aesthetic domed shape.
Pruning is needed not only to maintain the silhouette, but also to maintain abundant flowering. If Anabel grows too much, her flowers gradually become smaller and less lush.
In the autumn period, you can additionally carry out sanitary pruning. During the procedure, all dried and broken shrub shoots are cut off. After pruning in the fall, the Anabel hydrangea will survive the winter more easily and start active growth in the spring.
In autumn, it is customary to cut the shrub from dry and weak branches.
Shelter for the winter hydrangea Anabel
An adult tree-like shrub tolerates even very low temperatures. However, a young plant may suffer from frosts below -20 ° C. Therefore, when growing Anabel hydrangeas in the Urals and other cold regions in the early years, it is advisable to cover it with the onset of winter.
At the end of autumn, shortly before the cold weather, the shrub is freed from dried stems and foliage residues, and then the ground is tightly mulched in the near-trunk circle with sawdust, organic fertilizers or needles. The branches of the plant can be bent to the ground and fixed so that Anabel does not break under the weight of snow. If the wintering of Anabel hydrangea is going to be very cold, you can additionally cover the bush with non-woven material or spruce branches.
Reproduction of hydrangea Anabel
The shrub looks so attractive on the site that many gardeners sooner or later have a desire to increase the number of plantings. To do this, it is not necessary to buy seedlings, the hydrangea reproduces perfectly by vegetative methods in the presence of an adult healthy bush:
- Cutting. At the very beginning of spring, the tops of the young shoots of the shrub are cut off by about 15 cm and placed in water for 2 weeks for germination. When the cuttings take root, they can be planted in small containers with standard hydrangea soil and grown indoors at a temperature of about 22 ° C for another 2 years. When the sprouts turn into real healthy seedlings, they can be transferred to an open-air site.
- Layering. In the spring, during the period of bud swelling, one of the lower branches of the shrub is bent to the ground, slightly buried in the ground in the middle part and fixed so that the shoot does not straighten. The soil is constantly kept moist, with proper watering, layering will give roots by the beginning of autumn. Hydrangea Anabel is transplanted to a separate place in a year.
It is best to propagate the variety by layering and cuttings.
Diseases and pests of hydrangea Anabel
Tree hydrangea is considered a fairly hardy plant; it rarely suffers from diseases. But sometimes it is still affected by fungal diseases, for example, powdery mildew or chlorosis. You can recognize diseases by changing the color of the leaves: at first the foliage turns pale, and then it begins to turn yellow and fall off, the flowering of the shrub is disturbed.
Diseases affect hydrangea most often when grown on alkaline soil or in conditions of severe waterlogging. Therefore, the first step is to reconsider the care of the plant and provide it with comfortable conditions. Shrub ailments are treated with standard fungicidal preparations, for example, a weak solution of potassium permanganate.
Of the pests for hydrangea Anabel, the spider mite is especially dangerous, the appearance of which can be recognized by the presence of a thin white cobweb on the leaves. Spraying hydrangeas with soapy water or copper sulphate allows you to get rid of insects. Even for a healthy plant, it is recommended to carry out preventive spraying, they will prevent infection.
The shrub rarely suffers from pests, but preventive treatments will not harm it.
Conclusion
Hydrangea Anabel is a beautiful and unpretentious plant that can decorate any suburban area. Unlike most shrubs, Anabel continues to bloom until late autumn, which is why it is very popular in landscape design.
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