Panicled hydrangea “phantom”, belonging to the Hortensian family, is considered one of the most beautiful shrubs that occupy a leading place in landscape gardening. Her homeland is China, Japan and the Far East.
Panicle hydrangea “phantom” grows quickly enough. Its main advantages, in addition to attractiveness, are frost resistance (the plant tolerates cold up to almost minus twenty degrees) and durability. In the specialized literature, mention can be made even of sixty-year-old bushes.
In our country, panicle hydrangea “phantom”, the care of which is quite simple, grows up to the northern capital. It looks like a shrub up to two meters high with a dense crown and ovoid leaves, sometimes reaching a length of twelve centimeters.
The first flowering of hydrangea begins only in the fourth year. It lasts long enough: from June to mid-October. The flowers of this plant are melliferous, they are collected in large apical panicles-inflorescences of a creamy-white color, turning into a faint pink hue by autumn.
Panicle hydrangea “phantom”, reviews of which are only good, has powerful straight branches. They often need a garter. To achieve maximum flowering, gardeners recommend spring pruning before the growing season.
And so that the inflorescences do not fall from heaviness after rains, it is advisable to leave 5-6 buds on each shoot so that there are no panicles of large sizes.
Panicled hydrangea “phantom”, like all other representatives of this family, prefers partial shade. In open areas, its growth slows down, and panicles of flowers are very small.
This bush prefers structural clay soil, grows well on red soil, but does not like sandstones at all. The color of the flowers in specimens growing on acidic soils is much brighter than in all others. Therefore, experienced gardeners, if necessary, add spruce and pine litter, brown peat or sawdust to the soil.
Panicle hydrangea “phantom” has a shallow root system (it lies close to the surface), which spreads predominantly in width, and as a result of its border is significantly larger than the size of the crown itself.
For normal life, this plant needs constantly moist soil. A good solution is to plant in the near-stem circles of these bushes some ground cover plants, for example, moss-like saxifrage or various stonecrops.
Panicle hydrangea seedlings are planted in their permanent place at the age of four. For this, a pit forty centimeters deep is prepared taking into account the distance between adult plants no more than two and a half meters in order to get a living bouquet as a hedge.
It is necessary to fertilize hydrangea with a “phantom” quite often, since this abundantly flowering and fast-growing shrub needs a lot of nutrients. At the beginning of the growing season, it is very useful to apply green fertilizers, for example, from young nettles, diluted tenfold.
This shrub propagates by cuttings and layering. Cropped shoots are placed for two or three days in the water until the roots appear, and then planted in the soil to a depth of two buds. Planting should be shaded and regularly moistened, preventing the earth from drying out.