Question about Hydrangea blooming for first time

10 years ago

Hi! I got a piece of this hydrangea from my grandmothers plant that is at least 20 years old. I just dug a piece from the roots of hers. I planted it 3 years ago and this is the first year it has bloomed. Last year it was just really low to the ground and grew more out than up but it made the buds to bloom this year. It is starting to look much better and is sending up new branches that are growing up and look great. My question is about the blooms...so far they are just a few little tiny white flowers. Is this how they all start out and am I just being impatient waiting on the big beautiful balls of flowers I was expecting Lol or is something wrong? After doing a lot of research I am pretty sure they are a type of mophead and I remember hers looking like a mophead with colors ranging from blue/purple. I'm a newbie to hydrangeas and was so excited to see the first blooms and just had to ask some people that know their hydrangeas what to expect! Thanks!

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Comments (7)

gardengal48 (PNW Z8/9)
10 years ago
Sorry, but that is NOT a hydrangea. I'm not sure if there is more than one plant in the picture but those flowers belong to the rose family and most likely to some sort of bramble - blackberry, raspberry, etc.
paganfairy
Original Author
10 years ago
The flowers do look similar to some sort of bramble at the moment but I assure you it is a hydrangea. The plant I took the piece from has been at my grannys house for over 20 years and there is no way it has been mistakes for any sort of bramble Lol. The leaves are a perfect match to everything I look up and I have seen the thing bloom at her house for years and years :) ...its just the first blooms that are throwing me for a loop. Here is a pic of some unopened blooms.
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paganfairy
Original Author
10 years ago
Just another pic to show I promise it is a hydrangea ;)
paganfairy
Original Author
10 years ago
OMG!!! I just looked up blackberry bushes and I may have to eat my words!!! Looks just like it! I don't know what to say. I know where I got the plant and there was never blackberries around it! Look at the last pic I posted though...That part just started this year and looks more like the hydrangea leaves i see when i google hydrangeas and different than the older ones in the first 2 pics but still similar. Im so confused! The leaves are serated on the edges like a hydrangea and i swear i dug it right from my grannys hydrangea. I cant imagine how there could be 2 plants there! Sorry for all the confusion Lol!
paganfairy
Original Author
10 years ago
Upon further investigation after taking the fact that there may indeed be a blackberry bush in there I have figured it out i think. I don't know how in the world it happened but when i look really closely it does seem there are indeed 2 different plants that look EXTREMELY similar. I think that the first 2 pics are blackberry that i have no idea how they got there ( we just bought the hosue 3 years ago so it may have already been there and i didn't know) and then the last one is the hydrangea i planted on top of it finally coming up. When i look towards the base it is obvious there are t different plants. I just thought they were new branches forming of the hydrangea but now with this new knowledge it makes sense that there are actually 2 plants. I started to delete the post because i feel so silly but figured someone would get a laugh out of it. And hey now i have berries i wasn't expecting and there is a hydrangea growing through the middle of it. No telling what will happen with it Lol!
gardengal48 (PNW Z8/9)
10 years ago
Your eyes must be better than mine plus you are there in person examining the plant, but I can see nothing that looks like a hydrangea at the moment.......and I do this for a living :-)

Depending on where you are located, blackberries are weeds and with very aggressive growth patterns. If there is indeed a hydrangea planted close, it will be rapidly smothered by the bramble. Suggest you take some time and care and dig this area up, removing ALL the bramble (including roots) as thoroughly as possible. Generally it takes more than one attempt to get rid of it, which is why you may not have noticed it previously. You may even want to replant the hydrangea elsewhere, where you won't have to battle with the blackberry. And btw, birds are great at inadvertantly planting blackberries and other berry producing plants......usually where we don't want them!
paganfairy
Original Author
10 years ago
GardenGal I owe you an apology for doubting you when I was convinced it was a hydrangea! After you said that I looked it up and really really investigated and figured out you are right. It was getting dark last night when I first really started looking and took that last pic and the more I looked today the more I realized it is all the same plant and probably blackberry. I had researched and researched Hydrangeas trying to figure out exactly what kind it was and in my defense the leaves do look a lot similar, especially the really big ones. They are shaped almost the same with the same serrated edges and have a lot of the same characteristics such as both have blooms that grow on the branches from the year before. I did know that something just didn't seen quite right though because the leaves are all in groups of three and I couldn't find any pics of hydrangeas like that and my grannys isn't like that when I looked last weekend. I just cant imagine what happened. I took a piece straight from my grannys plant and put it there. I was just at her house this past weekend and cleaning up around hers and I noticed that hers looked a different but still quite similar in the leaves themselves but not the groupings (3-5-7-etc). Only thing I can think is maybe the transplant didn't survive and there just happened to be a blackberry growing in that same spot (like I said I planted it when we first bought the house) or the blackberry killed out the hydrangea. Regardless I am just gonna see what the blackberry does this year and then probably dig it up...at least I will have some berries Lol. I also went today and bought a Hydrangea...big and fluffy and Pink!!! :) Thanks for your help...this has been a funny adventure and I feel kinda silly but I learned something so that's all that matters. I am planting my 20x20 veggie garden tomorrow....but I know my veggies, just not so much flowers Lol!

Question about Hydrangea blooming for first time

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Question about Hydrangea blooming for first time

Comments (7)

gardengal48 (PNW Z8/9)

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