Nikko Blue Bigleaf Hydrangea

True blue is a challenging color to find in a low-maintenance plant, much less one that comes back year after year. Then to find one that thrives in your shade garden? It may seem almost impossible. But along comes the Nikko Blue Hydrangea (Hydrangea macrophylla 'Nikko Blue') and this shrub is the standard for blue flowers in your shade garden!

The white pompoms form in summer and soon transform into a solid blue as the plant matures. The mophead can grow up to 6 inches long, and as the blooms age, they change colors as they do while remaining on the plant until they dry and become a winter interest.

Nikko Blue is a fabulous bigleaf type and pH-sensitive type of Hydrangea, so it will be blue in acidic soils. Adding peat or aluminum sulfate to keep your soil lower in pH. But like all classic Hydrangeas, the flowers will lean toward lavender or even pink if the soil is less acidic.

Planting and Application:

It only takes a few of these beauties to fill up a bed. They quickly grow to 6 feet high and just as wide every year. They make great statement plants in your front yard under trees. They also thrive as foundation plants or backing up a classic cottage border. Use as foundation plants or hedges, backdrops to the garden or create lovely screening around seating areas.

A single specimen among your cottage garden or mixed shrub border adds a pop of color in the shade, while a pair of sentries on either side of your front entry stairs, or astride your driveway are a welcoming sight! A ring of these around your patio table will ensure you have guests joining you for dinner all summer long. Don't forget about the armloads of blooms you'll be bringing into your home, too! One flowerhead can fill a vase!

• Large Flowers Perfect for Cutting
• Blooms for Months!
• Mid-Sized Deciduous Compact Shrub
• Great Foundation or Border Plantings
• Best-Selling Hydrangea

#ProPlantTips for Care:

Hydrangea shrubs need partial sun or part shade, favoring afternoon shade in the hotter climates for best results. Plant in well-drained and highly organically enriched soil. If poor drainage is at all suspected, mound up the soil to raise the root system above the water line and plant into that mound. Top off with a 3-4 inch layer of arborist mulch chips. Prune back the old blooms in early spring removing any old or dead wood, but leaving nice viable stems for best flower production. Some like to remove the oldest flowering stems to the ground leaving the younger stems in place to bloom in the current growing season.

• Partial Shade
• Well-Drained Soil
• Organically Enriched Site
• Deadhead Often & Prune Immediately After Flowering
• Blue or Pink According to pH

This is our most popular and best-selling Blue Bigleaf Hydrangea and Nikko is sure to sell out, so don't be left without this in your garden for another year. Buy now from NatureHills.com before this classic beauty is gone!