The New Everlasting Colors of Hydrangea

A few weeks ago, we talked about what it takes to grow hydrangea.  Now it's time to let you in on Sun Valley's not-so-secret NEW varieties, how they're different from the old, and what it means for you.

Seeing purple.

Tim, our head agronomist and resident hydrangea expert, gave the Sun Valley Sales Team an in-depth tour last week; I tagged along, excited to take photos of our colorful crops and learn a little bit more about the new varieties.

Tim and the team examine a hoop of pink and purple hued hydrangea

 What did we learn? A lot.

The new varieties with which we are moving forward are hybridized for better performance.  The older varieties bloom every two years, but these new hybrid breeds give us high-quality flowers every year.  This consistency is a farmer's dream and allows us to improve growing practices and quality year after year.

One question the sales team kept asking was about size--"How big are the blooms?"

Sales Reps Doug and Debbie discuss bloom size.

Tim's answer? They're big (just take a look at the photos), though they're not as colossal as the older varieties.  So, instead of massive blooms the size of a baby, we now have a range of sizes, which gives buyers and designers plenty of options.  Not only that, we've found that the most in-demand attributes (as far as hydrangeas are concerned) are vase life and color. And since these varieties are bred specifically for the cut flower industry, their vase life is incredible.

"Just take a look at their names," says Tim, "Everlasting Amethyst, Everlasting Coral, Everlasting Diamond...these flowers are bred to last weeks and weeks after they have been cut. They're bulletproof."

What about color? How are we getting the beautiful mixed hues of blue, pink, purple, and green?

As we've covered in our previous hydrangea post, coloration of these plants is dependent upon their specific variety as well as soil pH. A pH of 5 or below produces shades of blue and lavender, while a pH of 7 or higher will give us hues of pink.  Depending on what we want, we feed the plants with water adjusted to a particular pH, which in turn, changes the soil pH and the blooms' color.

Everlasting Opal, slowly changing to dark purple (pH 7+)

 Blue Diamond (low pH 5-)

Emerald: This will change to a beautiful, pale green color in the fall.

Everlasting Coral (a beautiful pink/green combination)

Another new bi-color variety, Everlasting Amethyst

 
What about growing conditions?

Regardless whether our hydrangea is a new variety or old, temperature and light are still of utmost importance!  Hydrangeas like to keep cool, and they also need a little bit of shade.  We cover our open hoop houses with shade cloth, which gives the plants just enough sunlight to grow and develop, while also allowing the cool, coastal air to circulate freely.  This open and shaded environment encourages long stem length and vibrant coloring of the florets.

One crop tending practice we're doing differently is how we are feeding and watering the plants.  Before, we used well pumps to pump water into large barrels where we mixed in fertilizers and acids.  But now, we've brought our greenhouse irrigation practice out to the field, which uses computer-controlled, combined irrigation and fertilization--a process known as (and I didn't make this up) Fertigation.  Fertigation allows us to control the exact amount of nutrients each crop receives, helping us not only be more efficient with our natural resources, but also helping us control our resulting end product. 

New hydrangea rows under shade cloth

So what do you like? Large, medium, or small? Purple, pink, blue, white, or bi-color? (Let's not forget the future fall colors of Antiqued Hydrangea).  Here at Sun Valley, we have it all and will be in production through the fall--plenty of time to have fun with different color combinations, various sizes, and new floral designs.  We tried something new, why don't you?

Mature hydrangea in hoops