PENNSYLVANIA (WHTM) – According to HGTV, back in the eighteenth-century gardeners realized their hydrangeas would change color. They tried to encourage this through many methods, including chanting spells.

Not to worry, you won’t have to pull out your wand from your Universal trip this summer to achieve this magical transformation.

The science

The color of these beautiful flowers is determined through the pH of the soil and if the plant is getting any aluminum from the soil. If the plant is pink, it means it is getting aluminum while if it is blue, it isn’t.

To know which color your hydrangeas will be, if they haven’t bloomed yet, test the pH of the soil. The scale of color is as follows:

Acidic soil (pH<6.0) = blue or lavender-blue

Alkaline soil (pH >7.0) = pinks and reds

pH 6.0 – 7.0 = purple or bluish-pink

How to change the color

To change the color of your hydrangeas, change the pH of your soil.

If you want to lower the pH to achieve those blue and lavender colors, put garden sulfur or aluminum sulfate in your soil.

If you want to raise the pH to see those pinks and reds, add ground lime to your garden.

Be patient

This method may not work as some types of hydrangeas are resistant to change. For example, white varieties rarely turn. If your method seems to have not worked, test the soil again to see how the levels have changed, if at all, and apply more of the garden sulfur, aluminum sulfate or ground lime.