Lace Cap Hydrangea macrophylla 'Messelina'

Planting advice for your Hydrangea macrophylla Messelina:

• Just plant in position, water well, and add some fertiliser - they'll burst into growth and flower profusely all summer.
• Grow in fertile, humus-rich, moist but well-drained soil in partial shade with shelter from cold drying winds.
• Dig a planting hole 3 x wider than the roots of the shrub you're planting and mix some well-rotted compost or manure with the soil from the hole and use this to re-fill once the shrub is in place.
• Before planting soak container-grown shrubs thoroughly and allow to drain.
• Remove the plant from its pot and tease out a few of the roots.
• Add Mycorrhizal fungi to the roots when planting to help plants establish quicker.
• Place your shrub in the hole at the same level at the pot and refill the hole with the earth removed (backfilling).
• Firm in the soil with your heel, avoiding the root ball and water well.
• Mulch around the base of the plant with a collar, compost, gravel, bark etc.
• If you're planting into pots, use the best compost you can buy and add some sand or grit for drainage and to weigh the pot down.

Aftercare Advice for Hydrangea Messelina:

• Keep plants well-watered and feed with a specialist hydrangea feed once a year in spring or as directed by the manufacturer.
• Hardy in the UK, frost can cause a lot of damage to young buds, reducing the number of flowers, so protect your plant with fleece if freezing weather is likely.

Pruning Advice for Messelina hydrangea:

• Pruning is generally best carried out early spring. A general tidy up is usually all that is needed and consists of removing the dead bloom from each stem, cutting back to the first strong, healthy pair of buds down from the faded flower.
• As Hydrangeas flower on the previous year's growth, cut out 1 or 2 of the oldest stems, in spring, at the base to encourage the production of new, replacement growth that will carry more flowers.