Hydrangeas are a popular bloom in many UK gardens, but if you’re new to gardening, you may be stuck where to start cultivating the plant. To help budding gardeners, garden designer and TikTok creator Ish has shared his helpful guide for growing the plant this summer.

While there are a few things you need to know about before you go ahead and plant the hydrangeas, if you’re finding that your plant is struggling to flower, Ish shared one secret ingredient. Hydrangeas are a versatile plant that can be planted in either soil or clay. Inspecting his hydrangea, Ish urged people not to be disheartened if small flowers haven’t begun to show yet.

How to grow hydrangeas

Ish said: “Now you might just be able to see here, but I’ve got a few little flowers already starting, which is incredibly exciting. But don’t be disheartened if yours hasn’t yet, it may be another month or so.”

If you’re on the lookout for when hydrangeas could be flowering, they usually sprout between May and August. However if you’re looking to give your flowers a bit of encouragement, Ish recommended adding one thing to the soil to help speed up the process.

He said: “To give it a bit of encouragement, you can use used coffee grounds or tomato feed. Feed from the base, introducing a little bit of potassium in the soil, which will help encourage these to flower, so you will still get these blooms this year.”

Coffee grounds are considered a great ingredient to add to your compost, as it contains a wealth of nutrients that plants use to help them grow. Coffee grounds are relatively rich in nitrogen, as well as potassium and phosphorus.

When composting using coffee grounds, Gardeners World explained that using moist grounds work best when mixed with dry and woody waste. It said: “The nutrients contained in coffee grounds will be recycled back into the soil when finished compost is used as a mulch or dug into the soil. Also, add any un-drunk coffee to dry material in a compost bin.”

As coffee tends to be slightly acidic, plants and flowers which thrive off acidity do best. Alongside hydrangeas, roses will also benefit from the addition of coffee grounds.

You should keep coffee grounds away from the likes of lavender, rosemary, and certain vegetables like tomatoes and asparagus. Coffee grounds can also be used to ward off unwanted pests like slugs.