Hydrangea macrophylla Forever & Ever® Peppermint 'RIE13'. Breeder Ryoji Irie from Kyoto, Japan (PP18476, 2008). Has bi-colored pink and light purple bracts. A re-blooming Hydrangea, which means that it blooms on old and new wood. I planted mine in 2014. It has done little to nothing in the past 3 years. Side note, many suppliers list this as 'REI14'. Go figure…

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The bloom color of this hydrangea depends on the pH of the soil in which it is planted. If planted in alkaline soil, the blooms will be white with a pink stripe down the center of each petal. If the soil is acidic, the blooms will be white or pale blue, with a blue stripe down the center of each petal. You can make your soil more acidic by adding peat moss to the planting hole, mixing it half and half with the soil you removed from the hole, and adding organic materials such as coffee grounds. Acidic soil allows the hydrangea to use the aluminum in the soil, so you should also work aluminum sulfate into the soil, out to the drip line, or add aluminum sulfate to the water. Fertilizers for acid-loving plants are also good. Look for a fertilizer low in phosphorus and high in potassium, such as 25/5/30. The numbers, in order, indicate Nitrogen, Phosphorus, and Potassium.

You may even (accidentally or intentionally) achieve a plant with both blue and pink blooms on it. When mine was about a year old, it bloomed pink on one side, blue on the other, with an interesting lavender shade in the center.

This is a fairly small hydrangea, reaching about 2-3 feet when mature, and it blooms on both old and new wood. I prune mine in the spring, to encourage lots of branching and blooms.

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