Gatsby Style

Anyone who ***really*** knows me knows I love anything in the style of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s ‘The Great Gatsby’. The story takes place in the full swing of summer – my fav season – in New York and New York City – my fav places – with hordes of blooming summer flowers – my fav things!  

My flower gardens channel Gatsby’s and Daisy Buchanan’s lavish Long Island East and West Egg gardens. The two stars: blue hydrangea and roses, roses, roses. My husband gave me a lovely blue hydrangea for Easter. 

On Easter morning, I planted it near the art deco arch in the front garden, next to the two new rose bushes (white and pale pink). I started moonflowers from seed (billowy and white) last week. But hydrangea – I just love this easy-to-keep, deciduous, flowering shrub. A basic hydrangea flower is white; however, they respond quickly to soil ph, and an acid soil is needed to produce the beautiful blue (an alkaline soil produces a pink flower). I threw a bucket of coffee grounds into the planting hole, and then, a handful of nails. Once they rust, the nails will increase the soil’s acidity, boosting the plant's aluminum uptake. It’s an easy way to control soil ph. I’ll also feed with an acid fertilizer this summer. 

I think I’ll plant another blue hydrangea before summer is underway. And take cuttings from the Easter hydrangea. Hydrangea is pretty easy to propagate.