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Soil, Compost & Mulch

Can I plant Baby's Breath and Hydrangea in clay?

6 years ago

I peeled back the layer of landscaping fabric today to discover the soil in my garden bed is 100% clay :( We bought our house last year and I'm wanting to plant some full sun perennials. Will Baby's Breath and Hydrangea survive this clay? I planted a lot of Catmint which I know does decent in clay from prior experience. I'm crossing my fingers for the Butterfly Bush, Yarrow and Purple Coneflowers. I've heard those, as well as Coreopsis, have been known to do well in clay. I made sure to dig the holes larger and put some good soil in them before planting. Does anyone have experience planting Baby's Breath and Hydrangeas in similar soil? I live in Pittsburgh, we're zone 6. Thanks!

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Comments (5)

gardengal48 (PNW Z8/9)
6 years ago
You want to be very careful amending planting holes in a clay soil. Adding 'better' soil will just result in a bucket of very moist/wet soil with slow drainage. This can easily lead to root rots.

You either want to amend the entire planting bed/area or just dig a very wide but shallow planting hole in the clay, site the plant high (slightly above grade) and back fill with ONLY the soil removed. Any amendments can be used over the existing soil as mulch and to mound up to the base of the rootball. And almost any kind of plant (excepting those that require very fast drainage) can be grown in a clay soil if you follow this method.

The only hydrangeas I would consider planting in full sun are Hydrangea paniculata cultivars - all others need some afternoon shade.
stp4779 thanked gardengal48 (PNW Z8/9)
stp4779
Original Author
6 years ago
Thanks for your feedback! Yes, I made sure to dig wide holes for the plants but perhaps not shallow enough. I could probably go back and lift the plants up more by filling their holes with more clay to create that "mound" to the base of the rootball. BUT I back filled with a combination of the clay and "good" soil. The Catmint I back filled with clay only. Fingers crossed eek :( I'm a newbie so I guess I have some major learning to do.
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That was several years ago so it is getting to be between 1-2'. Still shutdown for the winter along with half of everything else though. But that means about half is also waking up. In the Fall, I was actually thinking it and other shrubs would be fully leafed out by now because during the last two years, winters here were mild so everything leafed out or bloomed extremely early (January). But this year, we had a lot of temp zig zags and those bushes that leafed out or bloomed early had their new growth killed by a cold snap. Forsythia is now blooming though. Flowering Quince tried to start blooming at the end of Jan but a cold snap in February killed the blooms and it is now leafing out with a few blooms again. Roses here are leafing out for the 2nd time. The early blooming camellias got delayed and are now trying to bloom. And the hydrangeas? Still snoring but... I saw an oakleaf in another town west of me with leaf out. Hopefully that means I will see leaf out soon as well. How's the weather in GA?
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I have 5 ES + 1 PG growing inside of 12-15' radius from the trunk of the black walnut tree for 3 years and everything seems to be fine. To make matter even more complicated I also planted last year a very young climbing hydrangea seedling to grow on that trunk. However, I didn't dug even an inch deep in a soil. Tree was planted on a slight hill and I just gradualy added 4-6-8-10" of the soil to create depth for the planting and planted relatively small plants with root systems that could fit in those 6-8-10" depth. I have no clue what will happen next, will WT poison the hydrangeas eventualy or its roots will stay where they are, but so far everything look absolutely perfect.
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kimmq
6 years ago
When you put a different soil in the planting hole you change how water flows and if the predominate soil is clay and does not allow water to move very freely and you put a soil into the planting hole that does allow water to move freely the water will flow into the planting hole. If you have clay soil you need to amend a large area not just the planting hole.

Pittsburgh is on the border of where Hydrangeas can grow well in full sun. I think yours will need a good portion of afternoon shade to do well.
stp4779 thanked kimmq
stp4779
Original Author
6 years ago
Yeah, I've been thinking it may be better that the entire area be amended by a professional.
Laurie Mansell Dyer
6 years ago
I would plant a bunch of seeds. They are less expensive than plants and they can adapt to their growing conditions.

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