You need a soil test done to figure out how acid your soil actually is--in some cases the organization doing the testing will also recommend how much lime you need for a particular purpose if you provide enough information on what you are growing. In many states, but not California, the state funds some sort of agricultural extension service.

I lived most of my life in California, with highly alkaline soils. Hydrangeas are always pink there no matter what. People go to some effort trying to turn their hydrangeas blue by adding aluminum sulfate etc, but I never saw anything other than pink or a vaguely purple shade of pink. I went to a family reunion one year in northern Alabama - Cullman to be exact - and about half the people there lived in California. Everyone! was exclaiming over how BLUE the hydrangeas are in Alabama! and they were all asking me how to get their hydrangeas in California to be that blue. Well, move back to Alabama, that's all I can say.

Want pink hydrangeas? move to California. It's not just the soil pH, but the irrigation water too. In my garden in California, both the soil and the irrigation water had pHs well above 8. No way to counteract that. In Georgia, you can dump on lime, but if your water is acid too, it won't work. Bags of lime sold here in Washington for neutralizing soil acidity give a general amount of how much to add per square footage of garden to change pH by (usually) 0.2 of a point.

Seems we always want what we can't have, doesn't it? Californians want blue hydrangeas. Georgians want pink. Here in Washington, people with sunny gardens want sun-tolerant rhodies while everyone else with shade wants shade-tolerant roses.

I agree with reg pnw. If you are in Georgia, like me, you will have blue hydrangeas. I've never seen a pink one, except in a pot in a store. I even bought one and it promptly turned blue the following spring. I tried adding lime, but it just made the color washed out.

I have plenty of pink roses. They look wonderful next to the blue hydrangeas.

I do have a very nice purple hydrangea. I got it from Hydrangeas Plus and it's called Europa. So you may want to go on there and try something like that. I like this site because they tell you what color the blooms will be for your soil. If you have all blue hydrangeas you likely have acidic soil, as most of us in Georgia do.

Hydrangeas Plus

Thanks everyone. I really don't like the blue which is why I would rather have pink or purple. I don't like red roses either but its not because I can get them easily, its because I don't like them. I had read that some hydrangeas do bloom only pink so I will get those, just hoping to change the ones I aleady have. I will check out Europa. I will also check out the Hydrangeas Plus site again. Thanks, Judy

I think the reason we grow hydrangeas is simply because they are blue. There are thousands of pink flowers but only a few are true blue. Even fewer that bloom in the summer.

The color of my Blue Lacecap Hydrangea is somewhat of a mystery. Some years they are very blue, sometimes a little pink mixed in and sometimes there are both both pink and blue flowers on the same plant at the same time!

I've never grown Hydrangeas with roses because they seem to do best in partial shade whereas my roses are planted on the south side of my house in full sun.

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The aluminum sulfate works. Soil sulpher works too. I have blue hydrangeas. It takes time and patience but it can be done.

The lace-caps are the easiest ones to blue up.

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I grow mostly the big mop head hydrangeas here in (alkaline) coastal Calif, and I am completely successful with turning them blue with 2-3 applications of aluminum sulfate. I just sprinkle it over the soil and water it in. The years when I get too busy or forget, and only apply one dose of aluminum sulfate, I get a variety of colors. Some blooms are half blue, half purple, some half purple, half pink. It's amazing to behold. I think it's hilarious that folks would want to turn blue hydrangeas pink, since there are already so many pink flowers out there. Blue hydrangeas are incredibly beautiful, and such a rare color of blue. But I guess we always want what we don't have :-D

Susan

Oh, hoovb, I have one of those. I really like yours. Mine has only bloomed twice in four years. The first year it was purple/lavender. Last year it was kind of non-descript. I don't think the buds ever opened. I will try the soil sulfur on them. Other hydrangeas are pink in my yard.

Sherry

Here is a link that might be useful: If only sweat were irrigation...

To me certain shades of blue (ones on the purple side) are pretty but the awful shade of blue mine get is horrible. I would much rather pair something purple with all my pinks. Yes I know theres tons of pink flowers, which I love, but I still don't like the color at all. And I repeat, its not because I want something I can't have because as several have said theres tons of pink flowers and after searching some nice folks have filled me in on some pretty pink varieties that I will try and hope, hope, hope I don't get that blue. All the different taste is what makes it all so much prettier. Thanks for all the input and suggestions, Judy