Here is my feelings on this. "We" are kings and queens! The "knowledge" we chose/not choose to take in is another "limiting factor" to the success of our plants or their eventual demise. It would be a major "limiting factor" if I did not come to this forum and thank God I did, years ago! :-) We have the power to control the way our plants grow, their destiny, if they succeed, thrive, survive and ect. I couldn't agree more about Al. I thank God for this forum and for the fact that they completely know that it is people like him that keep these forums alive accurate, and our plants healthy. I can't even imagine how much anyone would have to pay a "plant police" to monitor these forums to make sure that false , unreliable, unproven and bad information is dispensed to the eventual decline of our containerized plants. I am truly grateful for this. I have tried for YEARS to no avail, to get anyone knowledgable enough to help my plants thrive, let alone survive. There are many more people in my midst just waiting on the wings of to free their plants, bound by all the false narrow minded information, mis conceptions, commercialism, of thousands of hurtful ferlizers, crappy mixes, constant attack by pests, suffocation by salt and toxins, the bagged soils,greedy money making racketed plant industry and so on. The plant industry has no hold on me or many others at my expense to keep me replacing more and more. I am ever so grateful for anyone to whom takes the time to show me how to make good even better! Here are my two top teachers: Al and Rhizzo, since I take great respect in educated teachers, if one would take the time to read their profiles, in the plant/pest world of science very seriously. Then I follow, appreciate all my friends that support my decision based on science, positive feed back, results, and great ideas that I see work, to make my plants thrive to their best potential.. Marie: I am proud of you for staying focused on the issue at hand, and it is that of what concerns you most on this thread, "feeding your plants in the gritty mix"! All those that grow in this mix will be right here to help you and give you whatever you need to be successful at it. Mike

blue lyme grass! Blimey, that's brave. I grew this in my gravel beds for a year or so but then bottled out on realising I was actually growing a turbo-charged couch-grass. I did swap over to the (better behaved) leymus magellanica,,,,, but this was deeply unhappy and vanished quicksmart....but not before seeding everywhere). I first read about the leymus arenarius in one of Christopher Lloyd books and rushed out to buy....but then later read that he (Lloyd) employed his youthful gardener to dig it up annually, chopping into the ferocious rhizomes and replanting....which obviously, I did NOT do, only to freak out in season 2 when the clump tripled in size. The leymus magellanicus was a heartbreakingly lush powder blue (never attained with any number of heliotrichums or festucas).......so I may have to make another attempt and maybe protect a little better from winter wet. I have been sowing your seeds (the zephyranthes reminded me), especially the penstemons and callirhoes. I have a (tiny) packet ready to send your way.

Is there any chance you could just come to appreciate the blue? In our naturally acidic soils and ample amounts of mildly acidic rain, turning hydrangeas pink - if you can even get them pink - is an ongoing process, and not one always satisfactory. Even those that are supposed to be naturally reliably pink (like Pia) will end up with blue overtones over time in my garden. And, it's possible to raise the ph to the point of being detrimental to your hydrangeas health too - they can become chlorotic in soils too heavily treated with lime. I may not be the best gardener to be answering your question, as I've found it's better to have healthy, maintenance free blue flowering hydrangeas than to try to tweak the color in our area. And I like blue :)

Lime will make the pH go up,more alkaline.The soil probably needs to be more acidic.From what I've read,coffee grounds may help somewhat.Vinegar is a mild acid and people mix it with water and apply. What happens with some plants,like Blueberries,is they can't process the iron they need,if the pH is too high,even though it's in the soil.Then one of the main symptoms are chlorotic leaves that look like those top ones on your plant. When it comes time to fertilize,something like Miracid or Miracle-gro for Rhododendrons or even a little Ammonium Sulfate,about 1/2 to 1 teaspoon in a gallon of water should help. Brady