Hydrangea care, a winner, and an announcement!

Hello Everyone!

I want to thank all of you who stopped in and left me a comment on my hydrangea post.

I wanted to take the time to answer a few of your questions about my hydrangeas.

I want you all to know I do not claim to be a hydrangea expert, I have experienced a lot of difficulty getting mine to grow too.

I wanted to share a few things that I have learned about this beautiful plant.

If you want to learn more about hydrangeas from an expert I really recommend you visit this site

HYDRANGEA HYDRANGEA

It is a very informative website, it provides you with everything you need to know about hydrangeas!

What I fertilize my hydrangeas with~

I fertilize my hydrangeas once to twice a year with compost. We live on a horse ranch and have a very abundant compost pile.

We first of all dug up all of the existing dirt and replaced it with compost from the ranch before planting the hydrangeas.

After you see new growth then you can start to fertilize on a weekly basis.

I do fertilize with a miracle grow that is specifically formulated for hydrangeas.

Never fertilize your plants if the soil has dried out. Always fertilize your plants when they are well hydrated.

Never plant your hydrangeas in afternoon sun!

They thrive when they receive morning sunlight.

It is best to plant them where they will receive morning sun no later than 11:00 a.m.

Like I said in my hydrangea post, my hydrangeas will now receive sun until 1:00 p.m. and I live where it is very hot! So they will burn very quickly. I am hoping to come up with a solution before that happens.

Pruning~ this is a very important topic when it comes to hydrangeas, if not done right it can determine if your plant will bloom the following year. I didn't know that I wasn't supposed to prune my hydrangea shrubs until I stumbled upon this website~

Hydrangeas Hydrangeas

It is important to know what type of hydrangea you have, as there are two types, and type one shouldn't be pruned, and type two can be pruned.

Type one~Mophead and Lacecaps (macrophyllas - usually pink or blue)

This is the type of hydrangea I have.

Buds are produced on old wood.

If you prune these after July then you will be cutting off the blooms that are forming on the old wood for the following summer.

Most likely pruning your hydrangea (mophead and lacecap type) after July will cause your hydrangeas not to bloom the following summer.

However the endless summer hydrangea is known as remontant, if pruned it will regenerate the bloom bud and bloom as usual.

If you have type 2 (Anabelle types and Pee Gee types hydrangeas), then there are a different set of rules for pruning these types.

If you would like to read more on pruning your hydrangea and finding out what kind of hydrangea you have you can click on the link below.

Pruning Hydrangeas!

How to change your hydrangea color from pink to blue~

Last year my hydrangeas were all pink and were turning green.

When I bought them they were blue, they are called Nikko Blue, and I thought they would always stay blue. That isn't the case.

A year ago I added aluminum sulfate to the soil. I was told it would take a year for them to change back to blue. I was excited to see so many of my blooms were blue this year. It worked!

If you would like to read more about how to change the color of your hydrangeas you can click on the link below.

Hydrangeas Hydrangeas

I purchased my hydrangeas from a local nursery.

They were the Monrovia Nikko Blue Hydrangeas.

I fell in love with hydrangeas after I had read an article on them in Martha Stewart Living.

I hope I was able to share some helpful information with all of you.

I know I have spent the past couple of years being frustrated trying to get mine to grow.

There are a lot of helpful tips on this website,

Hydrangeas Hydrangeas.

A Winner

Also there is a winner for the Cabbages and Roses Giveaway!

Congratulations Jeniffer from the blog, Piney Flats Style, she chose the pale raspberry pattern!

It turns out Jeniffer is making over her reading room.

She has Christina's new book, At Home with Country, and

Cabbages and Roses is her inspiration for the makeover!

I hope you enjoy your tablecloth and napkin set Jeniffer.

Thank you Cabbages and Roses for sponsoring such a generous giveaway!!

Thank you for everyone who participated in this giveaway!

I really appreciate it!

An announcement!

I also wanted to share some exciting news with all of you.

I am in the process of starting an online store. I have been working on it for the past few months. That is part of the reason I have been so absent from the blog world. I will be stocking my store with things that I LOVE!

I owe so much to all of you!

I am not a very confident person, and because of all of your encouragement you have given me, I am chasing some of my dreams!!!

THANK YOU!!!

You guys are the BEST!!!

Before I go though I want to share a link to Shannan's garden.

I have been waiting for this girl to share some pictures of her garden.

The name of her blog is Flower Patch Farmgirl!

Her blog is one of the first blogs I found and she inspires me in so many ways!!

If you guys would like to leave a link to your garden in the comment section, I would love to see some of your gardens and if you feel like sharing a gardening tip, I would love that!!!

Have a great weekend!

Maria

p.s. These are photos of our family room, there is a giant t.v. that sits right to the left of the couch. I will share this entire room with you someday!

Jana from Twig also has a special announcement she wants to make about her Vintage Whites Market she holds in Somers, Montana, you can read more about it here

Hi everyone! This is Jana from Twig

Hello everyone this is Jana from the blog Twig!
It's that time again! The Vintage Whites Market will be held this month on June 19th, Saturday from 9 AM until 4 PM! Maria has been kind enough to feature our market, and we really thank you for that! I hope all of you who read and are within driving distance get a chance to come check everything out!

Last month, the best deals went first so make sure and get there early! We will have espresso and yummy treats to keep you busy while waiting in line, and plenty of awesome goodies to keep you busy for the duration of the day.

The address is 269 Burns St. in Somers, MT. Please email me at thevintagewhitesmarket@gmail.com for more information or directions.

Are you looking for anything in particular? Here are a few photos from the last market. All product is updated each time, so expect new and exciting things this time!

Beautiful handmade lampshades...vintage lace....they cast a gorgeous shadow in the living room!

Baked goods from Sandy of Sweet Notions...

Fabric rosette pins and hair clips made by yours truly...

A wine bar made from a vintage radio cabinet...

Complete with a rack for your wine glasses...

There are so many fun items scattered throughout the market....I really hope you'll join us on Saturday...and remember, our markets are monthly throughout the summer!

Make sure to visit http://www.thevintagewhitesmarket.com/ for all the dates and times, and my blog http://twigdecor.blogspot.com/ for updated information!!

Thanks Jana!

I will be back tomorrow with the winner of the giveaway and also some answers to your questions about hydrangeas!

Take Care,

Maria

Hydrangeas

Hello Everyone!

I hope you all had a great weekend!

Today I thought I would share another one of my favorite flowers.

Hydrangeas

Three years ago, I planted over twenty hydrangea shrubs.

I planted them all along the east side of the house, that way they would receive morning sun and not afternoon sun. The idea was the porch was supposed to protect them from that hot afternoon sun.

I never expected them to grow so big so fast.

Hydrangeas do well with filtered sunlight.

They don't do well in the hot afternoon sun.

They burn very quickly when exposed to the afternoon sun.

So that is why I need my husband to extend the porch!

Not Really, however we do have very hot summers here, and beings they are no longer protected by the porch we are going to have to create shade for them.

They really shouldn't be exposed to the sun after 11:00 a.m.

Now the outer edges of the plants are exposed to the sun until about 1:00 p.m. because they have grown outward a little more than I expected.

One thing we have thought of doing is planting climbing roses along the porch to create shade for them.

I am sad to say they will not look like this for long, beings the hot summer days are now upon us. Until I can come up with a shade solution I will have to cut them back very soon, so I thought I better snap a few pictures before that has to happen.

The name of the hydrangeas I planted are called Nikko Blue,

Really they are very low maintenance.

I fertilize mine once a week and water everyday during the hot summer months.

You can read more about hydrangeas here

They make the prettiest cut flowers!

Hope you all have a great week!

Take Care,

Maria

P.S. There is still time to enter my Cabbages and Roses Giveaway, by clicking here!

Cabbages and Roses is so generously giving away a beautiful table cloth and 6 napkins, to one lucky reader.

valued at $185.00

An Interview with Christina Strutt and a Cabbages and Roses Sponsored Giveaway

Hello Everyone!

I hope you are all having a great day.

I have a very special interview with the talented Christina Strutt, who is also the founder of Cabbages and Roses, and the author of the inspiring book, At Home with Country.

Cabbages and Roses is also sponsoring a very generous giveaway, for one lucky reader.

How would you like a chance to win a lovely Cabbages and Roses tablecloth along with a set of 6 napkins?

Thank you Cabbages and Roses for sponsoring such a generous giveaway.

You will find the giveaway information at the bottom of this post.

First I would like to share my interview with Christina Strutt. Christina has authored four internationally successful books under the Cabbages &Roses brand since launching the company in 2000. Her fifth book titled, Cabbages & Roses At Home with Country, published by CICO Books, was released in March (North America) and April (United Kingdom) 2010. The book showcases the romantic, classic and versatile design sensibilities of the brand, as Christina transforms urban, country and beachside dwellings into havens of comfort and beauty.

What inspired you to write your wonderful new book At Home with Country?

Cabbages & Roses are well known for their dreamy faded floral prints and people automatically assume they fit perfectly into country cottages, we wanted to show that our prints and fabrics slip very happily into any situation – a city apartment, a beach house, a houseboat on the River Thames really almost anywhere!

In your book, At Home With Country, you have shown us that your fabric
designs can look fabulous in any style of home. Do you have a favorite
style of home that you prefer to work with?

At the moment I like a challenge i.e. it is very easy to make a beautiful room in a perfect country cottage, I am enjoying the challenge of designing fabrics to furnish a stately home or a minimalist modern city apartment or a wooden shed! In short I like doing the unexpected and stretching the boundaries.

A lot of us dream of living in an old English styled country home, but reality is we live in a new home. How do you give a new home a feeling of being an old English styled country home?

By doing away with straight lines and perfect finishes – I once did up a home which was 15^th century but we made a lot of new additions so we had to make the new bits look old – we rounded off the plaster finishes and made them imperfect, we sanded areas on the new stone steps so that they looked worn – basically somehow knock off the smart edges! Wallpaper is a great help in softening hard lines, historic paint colours with their subtle tones and fill with vintage artifacts.

In your opinion what is the right way to decorate with whites in an English country style home?

By using different tones of white – Farrow & Ball have many versions of white – chalky white, old white, strong white – all the white tones used in different areas have a lovely effect. White is a very dramatic colour when used in an expansive way. By adding vintage or antique white textiles, such as the old hand woven French sheets, adds lovely texture and a sense of history. We very often wash products that have been made for us and dry them out in the fresh air – we never iron our textiles, they have a lovely pre-loved quality after washing. Whatever advice I give the ultimate quest is for a relaxed attitude. We don’t take ourselves too seriously and boundaries and rules are broken, I encourage you to do the same. If you love it – go for it!

What do you think is the biggest mistake people make when decorating their homes with whites?

To forget that a room needs layers and texture and for a really Cabbages & Roses look, pieces of vintage furniture. The biggest mistake is to never expect to make a mistake. The best interior decorators make mistakes too – if you learn from your mistake then it will be worth while. If you continue to make the same mistake then I would perhaps give up!

Do you have a favorite paint color that you find works really well as a
backdrop, when decorating with whites?

My all time favourite paint colour is strong white from Farrow & Ball – it works with all our fabrics whether they are on a white ground or a natural linen ground. It has a chalky grey hue and is quite perfect.

Has designing always been a lifelong passion of yours?

I think so. Very often what I really wanted didn’t exist so I got it made or made it myself. I think this is what Cabbages & Roses has become – it is certainly how it started. When I was an interior decorator, the fabrics that I really loved were the old faded fabrics that I found in antique shops – these were usually small scraps but so beautiful. With this gap in the market we filled it by reproducing fabrics – ready faded.

The clothing side of the business has grown for the same reason – the inability to find clothes that I liked!

Do you have a favorite Cabbages and Roses design?

Strangely, it is still the very first fabric that we produced – Bees. It had somewhat fallen off my radar recently, but I noticed it the other day and completely fell in love with it all over again.

Do you have a favorite rose?

The Constance Spry is one of my favourites (I have many) but it is prolific and beautifully scented and old fashioned.

What is the one thing you hope readers will walk away with after reading your inspiring book, At Home with Country?

That Cabbages & Roses really does fit in anywhere, whatever type of house you live in, there will be a place to incorporate Cabbages & Roses.

Thank you Christina Strutt!

Christina's book, At Home with Country, is such an inspirational book, there are so many beautiful images in the book! I hope you enjoyed the interview!

Giveaway information!!

Cabbages and Roses will be giving away a lovely Cabbages and Roses tablecloth and 6 napkins to one lucky reader.

Valued at $185.00

You get to choose from three different Cabbages and Roses patterns, Natural Raspberry, Tulip and Rose, and or Cerise Hatley.

All of their linens are beautiful!

The giveaway will end June 15th at midnight p.s.t.

The winner will be announced June 16th.

Random number will be used to pick the winner.

You must leave a separate comment for each entry to count.

1.To enter the giveaway all you need to do is visit The Cabbages and Roses website, and decide which one of these three patterns is your favorite,

Natural Raspberry, Tulip and Rose,

and or Cerise Hatley.

If you click on each name it will take you to the Cabbages and Roses Website, and you can view that particular pattern. Then please come back here and leave a comment on which print is your favorite.

2. If you want to Post about the giveaway on your blog or on any of your social networking sites (such as twitter or facebook) then that counts as another entry. If you posted about the giveaway on more than one social networking site, then please leave a separate comment for each one. That way you get an extra entry for each one of your postings.

Good Luck!

Thank you Christina Strutt for the interview and for sponsoring such a generous giveaway.

I feel very honored to have been given this opportunity.

You are so talented and an inspiration to us all.

Here are a few links for Cabbages and Roses, I thought you might enjoy..

Cabbages and Roses Website

Cabbages and Roses Blog

At Home With Country