Common kitchen ingredient hack can help your hydrangeas bloom bright blue

YOU PROBABLY HAVE THIS INGREDIENT SOMEWHERE IN YOUR KITCHEN ALREADY 13:26, 20 May 2025 Hydrangeas are a great option to add a burst of colour to your garden, especially throughout the months

of spring - and there is a simple hack to get the colour even more vibrant. The flowers, which come in various shades including blue, pink, purple and white, tend to bloom from mid-spring

until late summer, but this can depend on the variety you plant and the growing conditions in your garden. Hydrangeas are particularly eye-catching plants thanks to their striking

flowerheads, which come in various interesting shapes including balls and cones. The colour of hydrangeas depends on the type of soil they are planted in, reports The Express. The Royal

Horticultural Society (RHS) says if the soil in your garden is acidic (pH of 5.5 or lower) then this should produce striking blue flowers thanks to the availability of aluminium, whereas

alkaline soils (pH of 6.5 or higher) encourage more pink blooms. For those of you who are particularly keen to get vibrant blue flowers, it is possible to change the colour of hydrangeas

simply by adding a common kitchen ingredient to the soil. Coffee grounds are acidic and naturally lower the pH of the soil to make it more acidic, which is crucial for producing blue

flowers. The coffee grounds help to make aluminium more available for hydrangeas to absorb which in turn, helps promote vibrant blue blooms. However, gardeners should note that the process

won’t happen overnight and will require some time and patience to produce the blue colour, so if you want to give the plant an extra helping hand, adding aluminium sulphate to your soil as

well can really help. Planting Tree explains: "Some people report success using coffee grounds to change the colour of their hydrangeas. Coffee grounds, in theory, carry enough acid to

increase the acid in your soil to change your hydrangeas to blue hydrangeas. "This method may work, and coffee grounds break down into the soil well, so there’s no harm in trying it.

However, if you want to give yourself better odds of results, you might consider a product specifically designed to increase the acidic balance of your soil." Experts advise sprinkling

coffee grounds around the base of hydrangeas, but make sure they aren’t directly in contact with the stems of the plant. Then gently work the coffee grounds into the soil using your hands or

a trowel to help them break down. Coffee grounds can also be composted before being applied to the base of the plant as this can help provide a wider range of nutrients and improve the

health of your soil. Gardener’s World adds: "The moist, small particles of coffee grounds are certainly an excellent compost ingredient because of their texture, to mix with dry and

woody waste to speed the composting process. "Ensuring a balanced mix of 'wet' and 'dry' materials is the best way to achieve good compost. The nutrients contained

in coffee grounds will be recycled back into the soil when finished compost is used as a mulch or dug into the soil. Also, add any un-drunk coffee to dry material in a compost bin. Article

continues below "Coffee tends to be slightly acidic and is therefore good for acid-loving plants such as hydrangeas, as well as nutrient-hungry plants like roses, but again, use it only

in moderation on any one plant."