Stonington — Ideal conditions have resulted in an eye-catching explosion of hydrangea blooms in blues, purples and pinks around the region.

“This year they are going crazy. As a matter of fact, they’re so crazy they’re kind of flopping over because there’s so many blooms on them,” Stonington Borough Fire Chief Jeff Hoadley said on Thursday.

Hoadley has faithfully tended to the 13 hydrangeas outside the Stonington Borough Fire Department for approximately a decade.

He said he does it “because I like them, and it looks nice when you come down the bridge into the Borough and obviously it’s in front of the firehouse. It’s just something I like to do.”

He said he diligently waters several times a week and attributes their beauty in part to the salty air in the village.

Lisa Jacobson of Waterford, whose property is currently awash in a range of blues, purples, violets and whites, has planted 10 hydrangeas over her 11 years in town, some of which she has never seen bloom before this year.

She explained on Thursday that she grew up in the Midwest, where winters were too harsh for the plants, and when her hydrangeas began blooming this year, she was thrilled with the size, beauty and number of the flowers.

“To come here where we don’t have the deep freezes, these are perfect, and they are beautiful, and I don’t have to continuously weed,” she said, adding that they require little maintenance — she just tends the soil in the spring and waters daily.

While this year’s large, abundant blossoms may turn heads, there is some hard science behind the display.

On Friday, Linda Hardy, a 35-year employee of Stonington’s Pequot Plant Farm with 40 years of horticulture, nursery and greenhouse experience, said that recent years have been hard on hydrangeas, and spring cold snaps have really impacted the plants.

She explained that during mild winters, the plants start to develop early, but a spring freeze can damage delicate buds, leading to a season like last year’s when flowers were small or non-existent.

She said a combination of higher-than-average rainfall, a mild winter and no spring freeze led to this year’s display.

On Thursday, John Lorusso, master gardener and Windham County coordinator for the University of Connecticut Department of Extension Master Gardner Program, explained there are two types of hydrangea drawing attention this year with their blue, purple and pink flowers.

Macrophilla, big leaf hydrangeas, bloom spring through early summer, and Remontant, reblooming hydrangeas, a big leaf relative introduced in 2004, bloom spring through late summer.

Lorusso said a hydrangea’s color can be changed by adjusting the soil pH. In more alkaline soils, aluminum, which determines the flower color, is tightly bound to the soil. Acidity loosens the bonds, making it more available to the plants.

“If you want really deep blue, you want the pH below 5.5 on the pH scale. If you’re above 5.5, around 6, you should end up with purple, and then if you are neutral, which is about 7, those Macrophillas should come out the pinkest that they are going to be,” he said.

Lorusso said master gardeners are available to answer questions from local, non-commercial gardeners by email at Newlondon@uconn.edu or phone (860) 887-1608.

Hardy said Pequot Plant Farm is available to answer questions from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily at 591 Wheeler Road in Stonington, or by phone at (860) 535-1785.