Korina-Let me see if I can help you out a little bit as I have had aquariums for years. Baking soda is very alkaline and is most commonly used when you pH is to low when added to the water the pH will eventually stabalize in the area of 8.6. Even if you add only a little bit and test over time it will eventually continue to raise through buildup. That being said if you wish to lower your pH because you do not feel that your soil mix is acidic enough this may be the time to do some experaments. There are pH down products sold that are for aquariums (Sea chem has some great ones) and pools(these you could buy in bulk) the only problem I have with these is you have to treat the water, wait several days, test your water, and if its not right you potentially have to treat again to get the pH you want. It is tricky at best to make sure that the water has stabalized and the reading you are getting is accurate. You are fighting all the minerals in the water that help to buffer and stabalize it. Peat pellets are sold by aquarium dealers and can be used very effectivly to lower pH. I do not think that they are any different from the peat that we use in our potting mixes. All you have to do is place some in a container of the water you are using and over the coarse of time it will break down the buffers and lower your pH. The resulting water is very stable and not prone to the swings you get when raising the pH. The only thing I can recommend is to try it and see what you get. You could try peat in one container and your tea bags in another and see what you get. One other thing of note the RO water that you can get in the grocery store out of a machine has had everything removed and is to my knowledge very acidic because it has no minerals you could use it but I would think that you would have to add some trace minerals to your fertalizer regimine to prevent nutriant defecits. Hope this helps. If you need to contact me send me an email and I can try and walk you through some of this if you want. I know its hard in the beginning it took me years of experiments to figure out what I was doing as there was no one in my area to help me.

A rebloomer is a good choice for your zone. Mopheads normally are NOT rebloomers and only produce invisible flower buds in July-August; the flowers bloom in Spring. Cold winters like yours can kill the stems so normally, you would get only growth from the base or crown every spring. In a normal rebloomer, these new stems would not have flower buds yet so the result would be a hydrangea that stays green, whose stems grow from the base every Spring and a plant that never blooms. Rebloomers will bloom several times throughout the year so those new stems that originate from the base will produce flower buds/blooms but they will do so later in the year. I normally get blooms in April; a rebloomer planted here would rebloom again around June. More or less; Mother Nature tweaks things every year a bit. The information on the bottom of your soil test was hard to see so I decided not to comment in case someone else could see it clearly. I copied your report picture into my PC and tried to enlarge it but I ended with the letters and number "fractured" and hard to understand. Normally, the bottom part of those reports contains what they suggest that you amend the soil with. They give you estimates of how much nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P) and potassium (K) to add. These numbers are given in pounds per 1000 square feet. The amount of nitrogen is given in a range; I think yours was 1 pound to 1.3 pounds of nitrogen per 1000 square feet. Phosphorus and potassium recomendations are given in a discrete number like 1 pound per square inch; I could not make out your numbers. The graph lists those minerals that are either low or high (no point in listing all the ones that are fine). Phosphorus is low; many people address that by amending with bone meal or Super Phosphate per label directions. Calcium is high and many people treat this by lowering the pH of the soil (making the soil more acidic). Example of a bone meal product: http://www.ebay.com/itm/Hi-Yield-Bone-Meal-Phosphate-Fertilizer-4-pounds-/320658070501 Example of a Super phosphate product: http://www.thepigpin.com/super-phosphate-in-january-or-february/ After three-four months or so, you may want to retest and see how your minerals and soil pH are doing. To save money, I would use soil pH test kits and soil test kits available in most plant nurseries. They are not exact but they are cheap. You mix a pill, water and a soil sample. The solution turns into a color that means something (low or high). One type of pill checks for nitrogen levels; another pill does phosphorus and another checks potassium. The soil test kit checks the N-P-K minerals only. You would have to do a "real" soil test to check the levels of other minerals like Calcium, Aluminum, etc. Terms in the report: N refers to nitrogen. P2O5 is basically "phosphorus". It is the molecular structure of the phosphorus that plants absorb. In other words, plants do not absorb pure phosphorus but a molecule that contains some oxygen tied to the phosphorus. Similarly, K2O is the molecular structure of the potassium that plants absorb. To fertilize hydrangeas, I suggest you use about 1 cup of cottonseed meal, compost or composted manure per year. These are general-purpose slow-release fertilizers that will last 3 months. You can also use a chemical fertilizer like Osmocote 10-10-10 per label directions. In addition, you can use "weak fertilizers" like coffee grounds, liquid seaweed or liquid fish after leafout. But in order to make sure that the plant goes dormant in time for winter, stop all fertilizers by the end of June.

You can cut these down low in winter and start them over to get a smaller, denser looking crown. It seems at least two horticultural hydrangea print monographs have been published in later years, I would study those when trying to sort hydrangeas out. Also with any wild species found in China I would look at the eFloras Flora of China web pages for taxonomic information including dichotomous keys. Using the R.H.S. awards system as a basis Hydrangea aspera 'Macrophylla' and H. aspera (Villosa Group*) 'Velvet and Lace' are currently considered a couple of the better H. aspera in Britain. The latter is a newer name coined to distinguish material that had been sold there for years by Hillier Nurseries as H. villosa. I have no idea if this form is also present on the market over here, or if any of the stock here is being differentiated as 'Velvet and Lace'**. H. aspera subsp. sargentiana is apt to become bare inside and clumsy looking if the planting site is not perfect for it. Places in this region where you can see and study labeled H. aspera forms include U.B.C. Botanical Garden and Van Dusen Botanical Garden http://rbg-web2.rbge.org.uk/cgi-bin/nph-readbtree.pl/dataset=vandpub/filename=names55?ETI=Hydrangea+aspera both in Vancouver, Herons-wood in Kingston (currently under the direction of the same D. Hinkley who supplied Monrovia with what became H. aspera Plum Passion), and the Washington Park Arboretum http://depts.washington.edu/uwbg/gardens/BGBase.php?txtSearch=hydrangea+aspera&submitedits=&_submit_check=1 in Seattle. Also if you are interested there is a row of the H. aspera Plum Passion along the east wall of the Edmonds Library. *Group is a term used to indicate when more than one cultivar is grown under the same name. When this name is also Latin, as in Villosa Group it also shows that such plants are garden forms and not botanical entities occurring in nature. In this particular instance for example it was eventually decided H. villosa Rehder should instead be referred to as H. aspera Villosa Group. **One thing that discerning shoppers may have to watch for is vendors mistakenly concluding that all H. aspera Villosa Group are to now be referred to as 'Velvet and Lace', resulting in other, lesser versions being offered under the name

Want a real color trend breaker? Hydrangea macrophylla 'Wedding Gown' is it! This rebloomer starts as an amazing bright white lacecap with very double florets. So most people figure it is a pigmentless white and treat it that way. The sales ads do say that it has very nice fall leaf color. Boy do those words minimize one's expectations. Once the initial lacecap forms more florets of smaller size open centrally to make a flat mophead. Most people cut the flowers off at this stage to use in long lasting table arrangements. The name alone gets them sent off to friend and family weddings. The flowers seem to last forever. However, finally in the late summer to fall the flowers become peppered with light pink to red blood like spots. I suspect that the majority of people cut them off now because the amazing pristine white color is now gone I got lazy and left mine on last year. The flower spots darken and fill in over time and the leaves begin developing an amazing fall color. The flowers eventually turn an even deep cranberry red color and hold their form. Thus, a pigmentless flower developed pigment over time, and a lot if it! At this stage the flowers dry well for dry flower arrangements (good Christmas color). Finally the florets invert in late fall as the leaves reach their peak fall color. I don't expect the red flower pigment to be shiftable towards a purplish or bluish black color. Mine was growing at a soil pH shifting blue hydrangea to pink. Anyone try growing 'Wedding Gown' on very acidic soil or with Alumminum Sulphate addition? Being a white it might not yet have been tried. Since current marketing materials focus only on the Wedding White lacecap aspects, do not be surprized if you see it re-trade marked then also sold as 'WhiteFire' or 'Drama Queen' (favorite ideas) 'Ice & Cranberry', 'Iced Fire', 'Blood in Ice', 'Ice Flare' or some other name.