Pink and Blue Hydrangea Star Gazer, Hydrangea macrophylla, Photo Credit Megen Osborn
Pink and Blue Hydrangea Star Gazer, Hydrangea macrophylla, Photo Credit Megen Osborn
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Double Delights® Star Gazer Hydrangea
SKU: AM014377
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Overview
Double Delights® 'Star Gazer' Hydrangea is a compact, cold-hardy shrub that delivers perfect lacecap blooms in shades of soft lavender. Wide disks of tightly-closed buds open to reveal small, flat star-shaped flowers, and are surrounded by an outside ring of larger blooms with sharp white edging. 'Star Gazer' is a prolific bloomer, with flowers forming on both old and new wood. Like all hydrangeas, soil pH can influence color. (Hydrangea macrophylla)
key features
Botanical Name
Hydrangea macrophylla Double Delights® Star Gazer PP#20998
Advantages
Long Bloom Time, Reblooming, Cut Flowers
Growing Zones
Zone 6, Zone 7, Zone 8, Zone 9
Light Requirements
Half Sun / Half Shade
Soil Moisture
Average, Moist / Wet
Mature Height
36-48" tall
Mature Spread
36-60" wide (3-5 feet)
Bloom Time
Early summer to fall
SKU
AM014377
Description
36-48" tall x 36-60" wide. As the name suggests, ‘Double Delights® 'Star Gazer' Hydrangea blooms twice each summer. A first flush of blooms emerges on old wood in early summer. New growth produces fresh flowers in mid summer and will continue to produce blossoms through autumn if spent flowers are deadheaded regularly. The fully double blooms are held upright atop extra strong stems perfect for cutting. With a mildly-sweet fragrance, ‘Star Gazer’ delights gardeners and attracts butterflies to the garden. Fast-growing with glossy green foliage and a rounded habit, Double Delights® 'Star Gazer' Hydrangea shines in patio containers or massed in the shrub border. This deciduous shrub is long-lived and easy to grow, tolerating a range of soil and climate conditions. Plants require a shady location and adequate moisture.
About Hydrangeas
Hydrangea shrubs are native to the US and Asia and produce showy flowers throughout the summer season. There are many varieties available, each showcasing differing bloom colors, flower shapes, overall heights/spreads, levels of winter hardiness, and abilities to be grown in containers.
What does "Blooms on old/new wood" mean and what does that have to do with winter?
Some hydrangeas produce buds that will turn into flowers on old wood (also called "last year's growth"), while others produce blooms on new wood (aka "this year's growth") and still others will flower on both old and new wood. This detail is especially valuable for cold-climate gardeners who may be apt to lose some of their hydrangea branches to breakage from heavy snow and ice, or who may see developing buds killed off by late spring frosts.
For these gardeners, losing old growth branches and young buds could mean missing out on hydrangea flowers the following summer. Choosing a variety that blooms on new wood (or both types of growth) is extra insurance; it means that regardless of your winter and late-spring weather, you can still count on your shrub to produce flowers come summer.
Likewise, warm-climate gardeners who choose varieties that only bloom on new wood, will have to make it a point to prune their hydrangea shrubs in order to encourage new buds to form. A simple task for sure, but one that needs to be remembered.
What does "Bloom color depends on soil type" mean?
The color of most hydrangea blooms are directly tied to the mineral make up of your soil and its overall pH. To really see bold colors, you'll have the best results when planting in containers, which will allow you to create your preferred soil conditions at planting time. Although soil pH can be changed directly in the garden bed, it often takes more than one season to see results. The color of native Smooth hydrangeas (Hydrangea arborescens) cannot be changed.
Acid soils (with a pH below 7) produce purple-to-blue blooms, with the brightest blue blooms resulting from the most-acidic soils. To coax your hydrangeas into producing blue blooms, you can amend your soil with sulfur, or mulch your plants with a pine and/or cedar needle mulch.
Alkaline soils (with a pH above 7) produce pink blooms. The more alakaline (or sweet) your soil is, the deeper pink your blooms will be. This can be achieved by adding lime around your planting area. It is, however, more difficult to turn hydrangea blooms pink because as a general rule, most plants struggle to be healthy in soils with a pH above 7.
Hydrangea Types
Many hydrangeas today are available in a range of heights and bloom cycles, regardless of their overall type. For example, you can find Mopheads that bloom on new growth and Panicles that are container-friendly.
Mopheads: (Hydrangea macrophylla) The most well-known (yet least cold hardy) hydrangea, Mopheads are known for their oversized blooms that come in two flower types - Lacecaps and Pom-poms. Also known as "Bigleaf" hydrangeas, the foliage on Mopheads is quite enormous and delivers a lot of greenery to the garden.
Panicle: (Hydrangea paniculata) Huge, cone-shaped blooms and excellent cold hardiness are the hallmarks of the Panicle hydrangea. Their arching branches and plentiful blooms also tolerate more sun than other varieties.
Smooth/ Snowball: (Hydrangea arborescens) Also known as "Wild" Hydrangeas, these shrubs are native to the eastern US - and while their color cannot be altered by changing soil pH, their blooms tend to turn a pale green as fall approaches.
Mountain: (Hydrangea serrata) More compact than Mopheads and presenting dainty lacecap blooms and smaller leaves, these hydrangeas are native to the mountains of Korea and Japan where they're known as 'Tea of Heaven'. They're known for a slightly weeping shape and a long season of blooms.
Oakleafs: (Hydrangea quercifolia) Native to the eastern/southeastern US, Oakleafs have deeply-lobed foliage that changes color dramatically in autumn. Very cold hardy with showy, elongated blooms.
