Done with candy and food when it comes to gifts for Easter and Mother’s Day? Try the candy-colored blooms of Strawberries & Cream gift hydrangeas.
Specially bred for long-lasting indoor blooms, these luscious-looking lacecaps will be widely available before Easter (March 31) and Mother’s Day (May 12) through Home Depot, Lowe’s and independent garden centers, primarily in the Northeastern U.S.
Strawberries & Cream serves up yummy-looking-enough-to-eat clusters of dark, rosy-red blooms surrounding milky-white centers. Another “flavor” – Blueberries & Cream® – is available in limited quantities.
“They also add a boost of irresistible color and cheer to anyone’s table centerpieces, mantles and front foyers,” says Anthony Tesselaar, cofounder and president of Tesselaar Plants.
“People are becoming more interested in plants for indoor décor and health,” Tesselaar continues, noting the 2011 Floriculture Crops Summary (released last May), which showed increased sales of potted orchids and foliage plants by 11 and 5 percent, respectively.
Strawberries & Cream and Blueberries & Cream will bloom for three to six weeks indoors. Keep soil moist. You can place the plant on a saucer filled with water to ensure that the potting mix stays moist during its flowering period. If you’re going to plant them outdoors, says Tesselaar, wait till early summer: “These plants are specially grown in greenhouses to flower in time for the holidays, and they can’t take the cooler spring temperatures.”
In zones 7 and above, once their bloom cycle has been completed and nighttime temperatures reach 60 degrees Fahrenheit, these hydrangeas can be planted outdoors in the garden starting in early summer for a beautiful show the following year.
Fact sheets
Strawberries and Cream
Blueberries and Cream
Tesselaar Plants searches the world and introduces new plants for the home garden, landscape and home décor markets, undertaking extensive research and development of its varieties. The Tesselaar philosophy is to introduce exceptional plants while “making gardening easy” for everyone, so it makes its products as widely available as possible. Tesselaar believes the more gardeners there are, the better it is for everyone.
Source: Tesselaar Plants