Hydrangeas: I am tired of my mop heads blooming so late with so few, 3 by toni5735

toni5735 wrote:
Hi rouge21, I can't say that wrapping the F&E in burlap wasn't helpful, in fact, after removal of the burlap in spring (when I usually think it's safe in Chicago, hint, it's not) my hydrangea looked good with at least half the stems showing buds. The long, long winter and heavy snow did not crush or break any stems at all. The problem was and always is those late spring cold snaps that fry the buds. It's a catch 22, spring comes on strong with temps. in the 80's and everything starts to leaf out so I uncover the hydrangea and then whammo, it's in the 30's again and the buds are shot. I could go and cover/uncover it everyday, but honestly, that's not going to happen! :) I'm content to get what I can and it does always leaf out so it fills in the space nicely.

In answer to your question, I got exactly 2 whole blooms this year! The bush reached about a 2 1/2 ft. diameter after being pruned to the ground. The best year was 2012 when we had a very early and warm spring; lots of blooms.

The first 3 pics are this years blooms; the last one is from 2012. I'm sorry, you'll have to look thru the cleome that "volunteered" up in front of the hydrangea but I didn't have the heart to remove it. :)