Yes.

Is it the best choice? Maybe not :-)

Considering the size that hydrangea wishes to grow at, are you sure you wish to put that plant into a container.
Any container wishing to hold such a plant would have to be of size to contain the roots and such size of container would surely have to contain sufficient soil to manage that.
Seems to me, that's a lot of potting mix.

Not sure whether straight potting mix would be the ideal medium for such a plant. More likely garden soil --mixed with potting mix/compost/peat moss/builder's sand would be needed. That would also infer the weight of such amount of soil so that the container would have to be one that is more a permanent fixture.

I think a hydrangea is better suited in the ground and the ground given what can help the plant. That might mean it has to lean toward being acidic. Changing a container's soil's pH is I would think more a problem than one should attempt. The chances of over-doing it and killing the plant is I think very real.

Hydrangeas can do very well in containers for a very long time....just as many different kinds of woody shrubs can (and do). However, I think Stacy's question was in regards to the potting medium, and not her plans this plant in years down the road.

Stacy, many of us are acquainted with Miracle Gro and do not like it. It doesn't have enough coarse particles in it, and soon becomes mucky. Okay for short lived annuals, perhaps, but not for something that you intend to keep in a container for a longer time. However, those who are not used to or comfortable with a coarse, fast draining potting medium that will produce extremely vigorous plants (with equally vigorous root systems) don't have any problems with it. ;-)

There are literally hundreds of threads right here in this forum which discuss the pros and cons of various container mixes. Perhaps by reading some of them, you can determine what you might want to add to (say) Miracle Gro to vastly improve it. (I'd avoid sand, however.)

This is for Jeannie. Hydrangeas absolutely do not need acid soils in order to thrive. As a matter of fact, they are extremely adaptable to soil pH. This is a rather complex myth to stifle.

If you are attempting to grow one of the hydrangeas with blue flowers, then aluminum must be available to the plant. If there is adequate aluminum in the soil, an acid pH will help make it available for plant uptake. Many people who yearn for those blue flowers find it easy to add a bit of aluminum sulphate to the soil system around the plant on an annual basis. A very small amount goes a long ways.

It's worthy of noting, too, that many (most?) native soils have aluminum in them. If you lower the pH with sulphur, and your blooms become or stay blue then you can avoid the aluminum applications.

If your hydrangeas are pink and you wish them to remain pink, you should make sure that the pH is alkaline. The chemical reaction in the soil will dictate that aluminum will remain locked up in the soil, unable to be taken up by the plants. White hydrangeas don't care, as they are not aluminum dependant upon bloom color.

Many hydrangeas also prefer an acid soil....not just the blue/pink NIKKO's.
Annabelle....that white one...also an acid lover.

Besides, I didn't state that all hydrangea may need amending.....just as an aside that if one were to plant one that does need amending, it would be difficult to change the soil in a container.
To try to change a soil's pH in such a small volume of soil, maybe one should have a degree in soil science.

I will go into second year growing hydrangeas in containers. My zone is iffy for majority of them so an effort is worth to me. I used mix of my own garden soil, compost, peat moss, pro mix with some osmocote and sulfur added for good measure.
Having shady garden makes you learning few tricks. I am overwintering several of containers snuggled under house wall
and even trying one pot inside which already started to put green shoots.

I have never understood the benefit of using "garden soil" in containers. Maybe someone who does this can explain how the container soil is improved. Al

rhizo is entirely correct - hydrangeas can grow very happily in an extremely wide range of soil pH - anywhere from 4.0 to 8.0. It is only the coloration of certain forms of macrophylla that are influenced by soil acidity, as more acidic conditions allow aluminium to become more readily available and as she notes, it is the influence of aluminum that produces the blue color or lack of it that produces pink. And it is also far easier to amend and adjust for a specific pH in a container situation than it is for any sort of inground planting, which is why container or raised bed plantings are suggested when the pH of native or existing soils are skewed significantly one way or the other. No degree in soil science necessary, only a very basic understanding of soil chemistry and the needs of the plants.

Al, there is no benefit to using garden soil in a container situation. It is too heavy, doesn't drain sufficiently rapidly to accommodate the restricted and somewhat artificial environment containers provide and seldom offers adequate diversity of particle size or porosity, affecting the plants' ability to access oxygen through their roots.

Al, I've often wondered what the reasoning is, too. Especially when there is so much information available that proves that garden soil just doesn't work very well in containers, as a general rule.

I think it's partly economics and partly based on habit. "I've done it this way for 30 (40, 50, 60) years, and it's worked great for me."

I feel quite certain that gardeners who are used to the garden soil for container grown plants have a very difficult time making the transition because the watering and fertilizing requirements can be quite different.

Another possibility is that some gardeners are certain that the garden soil is more 'natural', thus must be better for ALL uses. They just don't understand that once you remove that wonderful, rich soil from its native system, that it can no longer behave properly.

At least, these are some of the reasons I can come up with. I'm SURE that as the gardening season progresses, we'll see lots of questions from folks who wonder about using their garden soil in containers. ;-)

This thread has been very helpful. I have a pink hydrangea that I have not tranferred to a pot yet, needed to buy one big enough for it. Since I am on a second floor apt I have containers but not access to soil around me (except left over from last seasons plants ) I was planning to mix a bit of potting soil with the soil I already have.

I am wondering if I should water more often ? Its been hot and humid most of the time the last month ( 80- 95 degrees ) and it gets at least 3 hours of direct sunlight from about 11 to 2 or 3 pm. When we are not having the constant rain as we did a couple of weeks ago, the flowers were very healthy and full, now they are very droppy and drying out.
Please advise the best watering plans for a container with the above soil composition.
Thanks,