Where water is alkaline, you can experience a buildup of salts in the planting mix. Your container should be flushed approximately once a month when highly alkaline water is used, every three months were water quality is good. Fill the container to the brim with water several times over until water is running freely out of the drainage holes. The recommendation for containerized hydranges is to put a gallon sized plant directly into a 15 - 25 gallon container of a bark-based soilless compost. Fertilize in Spring, again in July...it's better to err on the side of too little than too much, I will generally use about half the amount on container directions when it comes to fertilizers. Your hydrangea does not need to be moved indoors for frost in your zone. Mine in the ground sailed through 4 days of record lows the last week of February after they had begun to leaf out (22F) this year...no damage to stems or flower buds.

Found a fantastic link which explains the many forms of calcium: http://waltsorganic.com/ag-lime-dolomite-gypsum-oyster-shellwhat-kind-of-calcium-do-you-need/ Agricultural Lime: Calcium carbonate – CaC03 Pure calcium carbonate is used to help prevent the spread of various diseases, such as powdery mildew, black spot, and blossom end rot ... Adding Ag. Lime to your soil will also raise your PH making it more alkaline. Dolomite: Dolomitic Lime contains calcium carbonate, bringing benefits similar to Ag Lime, while also providing magnesium which is important for plants’ utilization of nitrogen, phosphorus and sulfur. Having an excess of magnesium in your soil can cause a break down in soil structure, resulting in hard compact soils. Gypsum: Calcium sulfate, or Sulfate of Lime – CaS042H20, due to its sulfur content Gypsum does not raise the soil PH like lime, and there is some debate as to whether it lowers soil PH. Gypsum helps liberate potash for plant use. Gypsum can also help break up compact and clay filled soils by correcting excess amounts of magnesium in your soil. Oyster Shell Flour: in addition to a large percentage of calcium carbonate, Oyster shell flour contains about 1-% phosphoric acid, which makes oyster shell flour a source of both lime (calcium) and phosphorus. Oyster shell will also slightly raise your soils PH over time. **** From Straw: The horse stable nearby me uses oyster shell lime to deodorize their horse manure. I tested the horse manure pH, and it's over 8. When I applied to my roses, alkaline horse manure (high in calcium & magnesium & potassium & phosphorus) REVERSED blackspots on roses by pumping out new & clean leaves and neutralize the acidity of rain water. Shell lime is best for alkaline clay which needs more phosphorus, plus it raises the pH slowly. Agricultural lime is best to sprinkle on leaves of roses, it's calcium carbonate which is a fungicide, it kills fungus by raising the pH. Dolomitic lime is best for acidic sandy / loamy soil. It will raise the pH, plus supply calcium and magnesium. Magnesium is the "glue" that holds soil together, and is less available in sandy soil. Gypsum also release calcium fast, but doesn't result in pale roses due to 17% sulfur in gypsum. My preference for my alkaline clay: I use shell lime (in horse manure) for heavy-bloomers BEFORE RAIN, and gypsum for wimpy own-roots BEFORE RAIN. Below site sells organic stuff cheap with 5,000 items to choose: 50 lb. of alfalfa pellets for $25, alfalfa seeds, clover seeds (for nitrogen), $9 for 50 lb. of gypsum, $10 for 50lb. of oyster shell lime, $9 for 50 lb. of dolomite lime (best for sandy or loamy soil, since magnesium is the "glue" that retains nutrients). http://www.groworganic.com/search#q=alfalfa hay&p=1 If someone has sandy or loamy soil, the acidic rain will beat up on roots, cause leaching of calcium & magnesium & potassium ... thus leaves become thinner and break out in fungal diseases. I successfully reversed blackspots & mildew on roses just by topping with ALKALINE & HIGH MINERALS & SLOW-RELEASED mulch, such as alfalfa hay (less acidic than alfalfa meal), my dolomitic clay, or horse manure (with oyster shell for calcium & phosphorus for my alkaline clay). Below are some pics. of own-root Golden Celebration. The first one was 2012 pic. in the front of my house, late August 2012: Second pic. below is the base of Golden Celebration, which is 100% clean with horse manure, pic. taken late October 2012 after the 1st frost: Third pic. below is Golden Celebration bloom with horse manure. Golden Cel. got too big for my front walk-way .. when I moved it, there's at least 1 foot of fluffy horse manure, and the root was huge:

Oh yes, little critters are everywhere... but it doesn't mean I'd want to rub the ones that are still crawling around on my eyelids... *shudders* I know what carmine is and where it comes from, but the dye should be an extraction created from the crushed shells... and should NOT contain living buggies. If BE is going to continue using carmine in various products, perhaps they should find a better way to refine it... or at least have some better quality control over it. And no matter how you shake it, bugs are NOT minerals. You can't make a big deal about having 100% mineral makeup when you are using non-mineral ingredients in them. And if it's only the the foundations that are 100% minerals, then they should stop implying that ALL their makeup is 100% min. That's just my thought on the matter. Having worked in the cosmetic industry before (but no longer) I ran into many people who had sensitivity/allergic reactions to various ingredients. Other than perfumes, one of the biggest offenders causing skin sensitivites is COLOUR. A LOT of people have reactions to products that are in shades of pink, and to lesser degrees reds and some light purples. Not all shades of pink, mind you, but enough of them to make them wary of that whole section of the colour spectrum. And since they can use other colours of shadows and blushes, they've ruled the irritants down to one or more of the dyes. The problem with most beauty products is that there are so many ingredients listed on the labels that once you know that you react to a certain colour product, you can't usually tell which of the dyes you are sensitive to. Most people with this problem wind up avoiding the whole pink colour family just to be on the safe side. But if you know you react to a certain ingredient, like carmine, you can pass on anything that shows it on the ingredient list. I have not seen how the ingredients are labeled on the BE packaging/website/etc, so I'm just going off of what people have posted here. My issue with the whole thing is: How are the people who KNOW they are allergic to carmine (or have any other issues with it) going to know to avoid this product? Or at least that colour? If there's no ingredient list and the company is already implying that they are 100% mineral based, that further implies that they don't use carmine... which can be a problem for those people who need to avoid carmine for allergy or lifestyle reasons. And personally, I get a little peeved when something is sold to me under false prestenses, implied or otherwise. That's just my spin on it.

ycmom, I posted a comment on your other (overwhelmed) thread. If you are using an alkyd top coat (thinned with mineral spirits), in addition to a good brush, I also suggest you get a racheted paint brush twirler, to use in clean up. These are shockingly expensive (about $40, US) but really make it easier to get the last vestiges of solvent off, prolonging the usable life of your brush, and making clean-up easier. I have a 5 gallon sheet rock mud container (now empty) with two lids. One has 3" round hole in the center of the lid for use during brush twirling activity (to contain the spun-out paint/thinner residue), and the other is an intact, tight closing one, to put a lid on the messiness inside the twirling bucket between spins. Another suggestion I wanted to make was to have two copies of each of your good brushes. When you're starting out learning to paint, especially with alkyd, I find most people overload the brush somewhat, which gradually builds up a into a really messy brush and handle. It takes a bit of experience to learn exactly how much paint to use. In the meantime, you'll have fewer interuptions for brush tidying during your painting time if you have a spare to bring into pinch hit when the first one gets messy. JUst hang the first brush in some solvent to wait for final clean-up and do both at once. And of course, remember that all cleaning rags and paper towels wet with mineral spirits can spontaneously combust if just dumped in the trash. I store mine under water until I have time to line dry them outside. (This is probably not good for outdoor air quality, but my house burning down is worse, over all.) BTW, "racheted paint brush twirler" is not the really name of this useful tool, but it's the best I can do at this hour of the night, and if you ask for it at a real paint store, or even perhaps HD or Lowes, they'll know what you mean. It's also the nuts for thoroughly cleaning roller covers, too. And good rollers covers ain't cheap! HTH, Molly~