Hydrangeas will have 'intense colour' and gorgeous blooms with common kitchen scrap

Hydrangeas give any garden a beautiful burst of colour – and you can now give them an even more intense colouring all thanks to some food scraps.

So to get the best from your hydrangeas each summer, gardening expert and blogger Lindsey Chastain has given some crucial advice to get show-stopping colourful hydrangeas. Lindsey, the founder of The Waddle and Cluck, blogs about sharing insights into home and gardening has advised that hydrangeas will bloom their best if they have a “steady diet of rich fertiliser”.

Ensuring your hydrangea plant is well fertilised is an essential part of maintaining them, and Lindsey recommended making sure they get the nutrients they need, and instead of opting for chemical-based plant food, she revealed there are food scraps in your kitchen that will do the job effectively.

She told The Express: “Many common food leftovers provide an all-natural fertiliser source packed with nutrients hydrangeas crave. Egg shells are one kitchen staple that makes an excellent pick-me-up for hydrangeas.”

She explained that shells are a natural fertiliser that helps plants “absorb more nutrients” from water and the soil – which will result in bigger and brighter flowers. So she suggested crushing the empty shells into a powder and sprinkling them around the bushes to create a “calcium-rich” soil.

Crushed eggs shells around plants as natural garden organic fertilizer

Another food scrap the pro revealed was ground coffee. Coffee can help to give healthy hydrangeas a “dose of nitrogen” which can result in healthy growth and intense colour. She added that the organic compounds in coffee improve soil and can also help with water retention, meanwhile, the caffeine acts as a “natural stimulant” which she explained helps to promote “microbial activity” leaving your hydrangeas healthier and more robust.

Finally, Lindsey suggested using any acidic food scraps and said: “Hydrangeas benefit from acidity, so acidic food scraps like citrus peels or pineapple tops work wonderfully. Rich in potassium, phosphorus, and nitrogen, adding citrus peels like orange peels to the soil will help your planted hydrangeas not only survive but thrive in their current growth conditions.”

However, she urged gardeners to make sure the peels are fully dry before using them to help prevent mould growth.

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