Hydrangea
Hydrangea macrophylla
Flower heads the size of your palm. The colour follows soil pH — acidic soil turns them blue, alkaline turns them pink.
- LightBright indirect
- Waterevery 2 days
- CareNeeds attention
- Max height100 cm
- PetsNot safe
- HumidityLoves humidity
How to care
Bright indirect light; direct afternoon sun scorches the leaf edges. Thirsty and humidity-loving: water every other day, daily when it is hot. Drooping leaves mean thirst — it perks back up about an hour after watering.
from₫470.000
Design this potDesign with this plant
Three glazes on the pot shape picked for this species. One tap opens the studio with that setup — change anything from there.
What it is, and who it suits
A hydrangea produces flower heads the size of a palm, and the most interesting part is that colour follows soil pH — acidic soil turns them blue, alkaline turns them pink. It is the most demanding and thirstiest plant in the entire catalogue, watered every two days. It suits someone who enjoys observing and intervening — changing the flower colour is an active choice, not something that happens on its own — and who can commit to a watering schedule with no days skipped.
Where to put it, and how much room to leave
Bright indirect light is right — direct afternoon sun scorches the leaf edges fast because the leaves are large and thin. A balcony with partial shade for part of the day, or near a large east-facing window catching gentle morning light, both work. The plant reaches up to a metre tall with a fairly wide canopy at maturity, so leave at least seventy centimetres of clearance. Because it likes high humidity (level 3), avoid a dry air-conditioned room or a spot with constant draught that dries the leaves faster than the roots can keep up.
The year-round rhythm
Every two days, daily in hot weather — this is the tightest watering rhythm in the whole catalogue, and drooping leaves are a very clear thirst signal, usually standing back up about an hour after watering. The soil needs to stay continuously moist, not drying out fully between waterings the way most other plants here do. To change the flower colour: work sulphur or aluminium sulphate into the soil for more acidity and blue flowers, or add lime to reduce acidity for pink ones — the effect builds over several weeks, not instantly. Cut spent flower stems back after the blooming season, leaving one or two pairs of leaves below the cut so new growth comes from the right spot. Feed weak fertiliser every two weeks through the growing season. Repot annually since the roots develop quite fast.
Which pot suits it
Size M for a new plant, L once the canopy is large and flowering heavily. Glazed ceramic suits it better than terracotta here, holding moisture longer to ease the pressure of watering every two days — the opposite of the bougainvillea or the succulent. Since the flower heads are large and round and the colour can shift over time, a neutral glaze like Bone or Tan avoids clashing with whichever colour the plant turns toward. The pot needs enough depth since the roots grow fast and need room; too shallow a pot means repotting more often than the usual once a year.
Three things that go wrong
Leaves drooping even though it was watered the day before: normal on a very hot day, since the plant loses water through its leaves fast — check whether a watering was actually missed. Dry, browned leaf edges: direct afternoon sun, move it somewhere with partial shade. Flowers blooming but not the colour expected despite adjusting soil pH: give it more time, the colour shift plays out over a season rather than weeks, and some varieties carry a fixed genetic colour that pH cannot override. ⚠️ The most important thing to know: the hydrangea is the one species in the entire catalogue that is genuinely toxic to cats and dogs — the whole plant contains glycosides that release cyanide when digested, and ingestion can cause vomiting, diarrhoea, and in severe cases life-threatening poisoning. This is not the mild-irritant level of the pothos or the peace lily — a household with a cat or dog that chews on leaves should avoid this species entirely, or keep it strictly out of reach with no fallen leaves or stems left on the floor.
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