Hydrangea 'Candlelight'

When should I plant the 'Candlelight' Hydrangea?

The best time to plant the 'Candlelight' Hydrangea is anytime from autumn to spring. This enables the plant to recover from the transplanting process and establish before the heat of summer arrives. You can still plant 'Candlelight' Hydrangeas in summer, provided you keep the water up to them. Ensure you select a sheltered location that receives full sun for at least five hours per day and has moist, well-drained soil. When planting, please do not put any fertiliser in the hole; instead, spread it across the soil surface after planting and then water the plant well. The Plant Company recommends placing bark mulch or a similar material around the plants after planting to suppress weeds and preserve soil moisture. With these tips, we are sure your 'Candlelight' Hydrangea will reward you with beautiful flowers and foliage.

What is the best fertiliser for the 'Candlelight' Hydrangea?

Candlelight' Hydrangeas are vigorous plants that require regular feeding to maintain optimal flowering and growth. Many articles offer various pieces of advice on this subject, but we prefer to keep it simple. The Plant Company’s shrub fertiliser has been blended to provide plants with an initial boost and sustained nutrition for 12 months. This fertiliser is applied to the soil surface in spring just as the buds start to burst. More importantly, we advise that no fertiliser is placed in the hole at planting, but rather spread around the soil surface so it can wash through the roots as it releases. The Plant Company’s shrub fertiliser ensures that nutrients remain in the soil around the plant rather than being lost through the soil profile to where the plant cannot reach them. This also applies to plants grown on sandy soils. This fertiliser is therefore very environmentally friendly and longer-lasting than most other products in the market, and is consequently the best fertiliser for Hydrangeas. It can also be blended with fertiliser for acid-loving plants if you think the soil needs acidifying.

What are the garden uses for Hydrangea 'Candlelight'?

Hydrangea 'Candlelight' is a much-loved shrub in NZ gardens. It is most commonly grown as a specimen, used as an informal hedge, added to a mixed planting, or planted as a backdrop for smaller plants. It is an excellent complement to a modern or cottage garden, bringing both colour and elegance to a space. It is the gorgeous foliage and beautiful flowers of this plant that make it an excellent choice for a garden.

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How to prune Hydrangea 'Candlelight'

Hydrangea 'Candlelight' is pruned each winter to contain growth and encourage fresh, new growth that will bear flowers. The Plant Company recommends pruning back to a low crown, which has short stems (approximately 20-30 cm long) with at least two buds on each stem remaining. Any dead stems should also be removed at this time, along with stems that are crisscrossing or show signs of disease. Young plants will generally be left with 2-3 stems, whereas older plants can have 6-8 stems remaining. These can be thinned back if desired, which will help produce bigger flower heads. The Plant Company recommends leaving longer stems on younger plants to help them establish quicker. In general, the harder the plant is pruned back, the more contained it will grow the following season. Flowering can be affected by hard pruning, but that is more likely to cause delayed flowering only. A common mistake made when pruning Hydrangea 'Candlelight' is not pruning the plants hard enough. This error results in a woody plant and a much larger plant that can be difficult to contain.

How tall does the 'Candlelight' Hydrangea grow?

The 'Candlelight' Hydrangea typically grows to a height of 1-1.2 metres and a width of approximately 1.3 metres. This is a general guide, as the plants will grow taller in a warm and sheltered climate when minimally trimmed. Conversely, they will grow shorter when grown in suboptimal conditions and when pruned aggressively.

What is the 'Candlelight' Hydrangea spacing for an informal hedge?

The 'Candlelight' Hydrangea is often grown as an informal hedge. That is, a hedge that is minimally trimmed, if at all, such that its natural, rounded shape is preserved to a degree. To create an informal hedge, the spacing between the plants is one metre. The 'Candlelight' Hydrangea hedge can be trimmed as little or as much as you want, given it is the informality you are wanting. The Plant Company recommends a little and often approach for trimming informal hedges, keeping them bushy yet still contained and shapely.