By Alan Summers
2006 has had an incredible number of outstanding plant introductions and its only February. This week we are featuring yet another new plant sure to be a standout for years to come - Hydrangea Forever & Ever Red. A sport of the original Forever & Ever, this large mophead is the first red hydrangea that blooms on new growth! The brilliant red flowers top the burgundy stems and mature to wonderful shades of purple. The plant habit is compact, maturing to only 4 feet tall and wide.
Repeat Blooms on a Compact Plant
If you are a lover of the Endless Summer, this is a must have for your spring garden. Like it's parent, the original Forever & Ever, Forever & Ever Red appears to have all of the qualities of the Endless Summer Hydrangea that gardeners have fallen in love with. It blooms repeatedly on both old and new wood, ensuring that your hydrangea will be covered in beautiful blooms throughout the season - proven reliably winter hardy to Zone 4 (minus 30 degrees) tested in Michigan. Also, Hydrangea Forever & Ever Red is reportedly unaffected by soil PH. The color should be red changing to purple in all soils. Being overly cautious, in really acid soils I suggest adding a couple of handfuls of lime when planting. From what we have seen and heard, Forever & Ever has many qualities that quite possibly may make it superior to Endless Summer (if that is possible!), including:
- Larger blossom clusters
- Larger individual florets with frilled petal edges
- More compact growth habit by, about a foot
- Waxy, leathery leaves
Planting and Care
- For best results plant early Spring to late Summer
- Perform best in moist, but not wet, soil. Add Soil Moist if you think the soil is too dry
- Prefers an area with morning sun and afternoon shade
- Plant so the top of the root ball is a half-inch below the surface of the soil
- Mulch with two-three inches of organic mulch
- Use a handful of Bulb-Tone fertilizer at planting and again in late November and early March
- Can be cut back in Spring or Summer or die to the ground in Winter and still have many blooms the next season
- Remove the spent blooms as they fade and watch the plant continue to bloom all summer long
Click here to view Forever & Ever Red on the Carroll Gardens website.
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Alan Summers, president of Carroll Gardens, Inc., has over 30 years experience in gardening and landscape design. He has made Carroll Gardens one of America’s preeminent nurseries, having introduced more than 20 new perennials and woody shrubs over the years and reintroduced numerous “lost” cultivars back to American gardeners.
Carroll Gardens publishes a weekly online newsletter written by Alan. It contains valuable gardening advice and tips and answers to customer questions. Click here to sign up for the Carroll Gardens weekly enewsletter.
Every Saturday, Alan hosts a call-in gardening forum on WCBM radio - 680 AM. For those outside of the WCBM listening area, they can listen to radio show via the internet.
Visit CarrollGardens.com to learn more.
