Large flower balls in blue, violet, white, pink or red: Hardly any other garden perennial impresses with such a blaze of color as the hydrangea. We would like to go into more detail here how the flowers with the special flair are structured and how you can preserve them.
Hydrangea flowers differ in shape and color depending on the variety
The structure of the flowers
Wild forms of the hydrangea form white, pink or blue false flowers at the end of the shoot, which the plant uses to attract insects. The inconspicuous, fertile flowers are located inside and are often not recognizable as flowers for laypeople at first glance.
In the case of garden hybrids, these fruity flower parts are often also transformed into pseudoflowers, so that the hydrangea no longer forms seeds. The following are an exception:
- climbing hydrangea
- velvet hydrangea
- oak leaf hydrangea
- plate hydrangea.
It is therefore possible for these species to breed from seeds.
break out flowers
To ensure that the hydrangea produces new flowers throughout the summer, you should regularly break out faded flowers. Alternatively, you can also cut off the faded umbels.
Drying hydrangea flowers
The large flower balls can be preserved and thus made durable. To do this, cut off the fully mature hydrangea flowers with a stalk about eight inches long. Mix two thirds of water with one third of glycerine and pour the mixture into the vase with the hydrangea flowers.
Since the hydrangea blossoms dried in this way remain elastic and soft, you can arrange them almost like fresh blossoms. They keep their full color strength for many months and are an extremely attractive room decoration.
tips
If the hydrangea only forms sterile flowers, you can still multiply them yourself. A large hydrangea can be divided into two or three plants. Breeding from cuttings is also easy.