do you know how alkaline your soil is??? .. or just that it is???

ken

I have slightly alkaline soil and have zero success growing a lot of woodland plants, such as Pieris, Oxydendrum, etc. For some reason, though, my Fothergillas are fine. So they may prefer acidic soil but apparently are not as touchy as some of the others. Not answering your question I realize!

Maybe I should bring it back to the store then...

At Ken, no idea but my hydgrangea are pink... out region is known to be alkaline..

Any other way to acidify naturally? Pine needles?

Do you have healthy Red Oaks nearby? If yes, your soil is fine for Fothergilla. I don't know anywhere in Ontario where the native soil would be too alkaline for Fothergilla.

I must not have been explicit enough in my previous post. pH is a logarithmic scale from 0 to 14. 7 is neutral while the extremes will dissolve you. 7.2-7.5 is fairly normal for most of Ontario and while technically "alkaline", most plants have no issue (though you will have pink hydrangeas).

Is your drive to acidify the soil because of the Fothergilla (if yes, it doesn't need it) or because you want blue Hydrangeas?

Just garden sulfur - skip the aluminum :-) But again, if your soils have a high buffering capacity, as Smivies indicates, the effect will be temporary at best.

FWIW, pine needles do NOT contribute to soil acidity.

Yes, you have nailed it; other than Arbutus I have a big 'no ericaceae' sign out!

We do have red oak in the area and the odd white, pin... I actually planted a red oak 2 years ago and although it;s young and small, it seems to be doing fine. I will forego the acidification, which was intended for the fothergilla only. I quite like pink hydrangea actually. Thanks for enlightening me. I read quite a bit of info on the acid soil requirements for fothergilla.. Obviously overstated and perhaps I didn't interpret well.

oh, one last question on the Mt Airy - in your experiences, how large have they grown for you? I'd especially like to know from my fellow Ontario gardeners. It's supposed to be smaller than the 'major' but the sizes vary from source to source, as you'd expect. I am hoping it will remain 6' wide and not much more or I will have to prune it occasionally in the spot I intend it for. Thanks...

I've forgotten which Fothergilla variety I planted and it's not old enough at this point to see what size it will max out at....sorry I couldn't help more on that regard.

If you also have healthy White and Pin (with no chlorosis/yellow leaves) Oaks nearby, your soil is definitely OK!

Like Smivies, my soil is in the 7.5 alkaline range and my fothergilla does fine...well, excepts for rabbits in winter. I doubt they are in need of acidifying at all.

tj

I am not in Ontario, but I have been growing Fothergilla Mt. Airy for 10-12 years, starting from rooted cuttings. They seem to have settled in between 4'-5' and haven't gotten much taller for several years. However, they do tend to sucker in my garden, so plan to pull up or clip off suckers if you have a width limit. I have a few in almost full sun and clay soil on a slope that sucker profusely, and a few in mostly shade in relatively sandy soil that haven't suckered much, if at all.

@ NHBabs, do you find much of a fall color performance difference between the one receiving sun and the other? I have about 6' max to work with in one particular site where I plan to place it. Thanks

Yes, the ones in sun are a blaze of gold, red and orange while the ones in shade are less dense and are paler in autumn, just yellow and peach.

I don't think my suckering sun plants have exceeded 6', but I think they must be approaching it.