When is it safe to cut back my out of control hydrangea bush. My DH did once and I didn't get blooms out of it for two years. This year there was an abundance of blooms. I don't know what variety it is. I do know it is not too happy baking in the afternoon sun.
I would like to trim it back at some point, but dont want to hurt it. Please help.
If it's out of control and really needs to be pruned, then sometimes you just need to prune it and realize that you may miss out on blooms the following year. You should just miss them for one year though--if they were pruned only once and you missed flowers for 2 yrs there was likely something else going on...like a late cold snap that zapped the buds, etc. Unless maybe he cut them all the way back to the ground or something, then I could see they might take a little longer to recover.
That being said, I think if you prune them really soon you'd still be in time to not cut off next year's blooms. I wouldn't wait too long though. The other approach you can take which will leave you some blooms for next year as well as not stressing the plant too much is to just prune back a third of the branches instead of doing everything. Then next year do another third, etc.
Thanks, I think he cut it all the way down to the ground or at least to about a foot or less... We missed a whole year at least.
Now that it is December, and Im in zone 6, my hydrangea is dead for the winter. All the stems are naked and brown except for a crispy brown flower holding on to the stem... Should I leave it alone, or can I cut it all down with out risking any loss of blooms next year? What is the norm for these? Are you supposed to cut them back like a hardy hibiscus??
I would leave it alone. They aren't supposed to be cut back all the way every year like the hardy hibiscus--those branches that are leafless now are still alive and should leaf out again next year. Assuming it's a macrophylla and not a reblooming cultivar, then if you cut it down now you will have no chance of flowers next year. If you leave it alone, you should have flowers unless you get a late freeze that zaps the buds. Come spring when it leafs out, it's possible there may be a few branches that did actually get killed and you can prune them out then, but for now you can't tell what's dead and what's just dormant so I'd leave it alone unless it's so overgrown and in need of pruning that you're willing to forgo flowers next year to get it back in shape.
I too would leave them alone IF I did not want to loose the blooms in Spring. But I would consider another long-term solution. Because you loose blooms when pruned, your hydrangea must produce flower buds on old wood during the months of July-August. Pruning works best for those hydrangeas when you do it after they have bloomed but BEFORE the month of July, when flower buds begin to develop. Pruning on or after July risks loosing blooms the next year.
However, you seem to have to prune too often which suggests that the plant is too big for its current location. You may want to consider transplanting the shrub to another similar location where it can grow to its size at maturity and not force you to add pruning to your list of annual garden chores. Since you do not know the variety, look for a spot where it can attain a height of 6' and width of 6', where it can get morning sun only similar to the location where the plant is now, and where the soil can be watered as often as you do now. You may still have to prune but ,hopefully, only every few years and not as often as it sounds you are now pruning. Transplanting in winter works best because it helps minimize transplant shock since the hydrangea is dormant. But these are tough plants and can be transplanted in Spring and Fall as well. Transplanting in the Summer is sort of ok but, because you need to monitor for soil moisture problems and summer is hot outside, I prefer to transplant at other times of the year. While transplanting can also result in less blooms on the first year, if you prepare the new hole before digging out the hydrangea, if you water the plant the night before moving & if you move as much of the rootball as possible, you may lessen the impact. Keep it mulched with 3-4" of mulch.
Thank you all. I didn't prune at all this year despite what I was asking earlier. I decided to listen to all my friends here and not do it. I am not going to prune it now either. It looks terrible like it is, but whatever, I don't want to not have blooms again next year. This year I had many!
It is OK to move it right now? Even with frost happening? I have a spot picked out that is no afternoon sun that I like, but didn't know I could move it right now. The spot it is in right now is very shallow as it is on a of dirt that is sitting on a huge ledge. So I really think it would be happier with more room for its feet.
Thanks All!
~Kristen
Now would be the ideal time to move it because it's dormant, as Luis said. Prepare the hole very well before you dig up the hydrangea to move it and give it a good drink of water, as Luis also said, before and after the dig. Take as much soil as possible. Good luck.
We had four hydrangeas that just got too big - our fault of course for not believing they'd ever attain the size they did in 15 years. This year, we had the help of a young gardener from Guatemala, Neri, and all by himself he moved all four of them to spots where they can grow as big as nature intended.
He did move all four plus a Limelight.
Does it hurt the plant at all to leave the dried flowers on over the winter? I think the form of the blooms are pretty, even when they've lost their color, so I've been leaving them on the plant until spring. I never thought about whether it would hinder blooms on that particular branch the following year. They are Limelight and Pinky Winky.
I got winter protection put on some of my newer hydrangeas just before the first hard freeze. I piled shredded leaves to cover the plant, then put some straw and sticks in a teepee over top of the leaves to keep them in place. Am I correct in my understanding that macrophyllas need more protection than paniculatas? I have not had any problems with the Limelight or Pinky Winky, but my serrata, Preziosa, has been pretty finicky and has stayed quite small. The two newest ones are macrophyllas in the Cityline series, Peppermint and Blue Heaven. I put plenty of peat moss in the hole when I planted them, and also gave them a nice dose of. . .drat, can't remember the name, but the packaging said it was to acidify the soil and help your hydrangeas bloom blue. I've been longing for a blue hydrangea for several years, so I hope my efforts will be successful!
Angie
It won't hurt the plant unless the wind rips the flower head off and that rips into the stem but it has never happened in our garden. I leave most of them because they are such fun if we get snow.
Angie, your protection sounds great. Was it aluminum sulfate you applied for the blue color? I've used it (by mistake) on a pink hydrangea when I was busy losing my mind feeding Japanese irises.
My Limelight still has its flowers and I won't be removing them. It should not hurt the buds for next year. We'll find out together. Good luck.
This is a lacecap, not Limelight.
Pirl, that is exactly why I like to leave the flowers! They look so pretty with snow on them! So do coneflower seed heads. :) Even when it isn't snowy, they give a pretty, antique lace look to the garden.
It probably was aluminum sulfate. They had two different containers displayed next to the hydrangeas, one to make them turn pink, and one to make them turn blue. My soil is pretty heavily alkaline, since we're in a river valley, so I don't know how much luck I'll have in getting them to bloom blue, regardless of what I treat them with. I'll give them another feeding with it in the spring.
Loved your lacecap picture! There is a particular lacecap I've been dreaming about, called Blue Bunny, that is supposed to stay blue regardless of soil. I think I'm just a zone too cool for it, though. I wonder if I put it in a sheltered location and gave it winter protection, if I could get it to survive?
http://www.gardencrossings.com/plant/Hydrangea_Involucrata_Blue%20Bunny
I love the size on that hydrangea on your link! Hope it stays blue for you.
Ercane has said to keep pink hydrangeas pink to plant them in a pot so they won't absorb the aluminum from the soil. (Hope I got that right!) Maybe it would work to keep your hydrangea blue if you planted it in a large nursery pot.
The more you can protect a plant and keep it out of the harsh winter winds the more you're likely to succeed. I do wish you luck.
It's always amusing that some of us only get the blue flowers and other get pink and we each want what the other one has!
If you're trying to make your hydrangeas be the opposite color of what they'd naturally be in your garden, then as pirl mentioned it can be easier to keep them in a container because it's easier to keep the pH in the right range in the container vs in a garden bed. For pink it's more about the pH than the aluminum--if the soil pH is high then the plant can't absorb the aluminum so they will be pink regardless of whether there's aluminum around. For blue, you need aluminum plus low pH so that the plant can take it up. Most garden soil has aluminum in it so as long as you can get the pH low enough your plants will be blue, but potting mix for containers doesn't necessarily have aluminum so if you do containers you will probably need to add the aluminum sulfate (in the garden, you could use other things like sulfur to drop the pH rather than the aluminum sulfate) However, in a colder zone if you keep them in a pot then they're more likely to die from cold unless you sink the pot in the ground for the winter or keep the plant in your garage or somewhere slightly warmer than outdoors. So for you, I'd probably leave them in the ground and amend every year if you want blue.
I agree with pirl that your protection plan sounds good. The paniculatas are hardier and bloom on new wood, so they won't need protection but your new Cityline macrophyllas will need it.
PS I gave up a long time ago and decided to like pink hydrangeas--too much trouble to try and change them!
And then some of us have the best of both worlds, pink, blue, white and violet blooms all on one plant.
One more
Duh, wrong one more. LOL
I'm missing the white but I do have pink, dark pink/magenta, purple and mauve on these two, which are up against the house and get the lime from the foundation.
I agree with everyone who says do not prune it unless you have to, and then think twice more.
Here is a photo collage showing how they hold up as arrangements:
Top - last summer, they were blue, pink, green at various times.
Middle, 10/10/10 Blooms were green and beginning to dry. I put into florist foam dampened. I have never watered it again.
Bottom - tonight 1/11/11 - It is still beautiful, mostly green and brownish edges. I think it will last till next year. They did this on their own, with no help from me.
So... next year I plan to cut the blooms as they peak and hang them upside down to dry.
I will prune the stems and foliage associated with that bloom only. ONLY. I won't cut anything before I see where the blooms are because the year before I trimmed stems and lost many blooms because of it.
No more pruning, except one stem at a time, as they finish blooming.
Linny
VERY pretty, Linny. The bottom shot almost looks like a painting. Really lovely.
Where do I buy the aluminum sulfate?
How much do I apply to the plant?
when do I apply it?
Any nursery or garden center should carry it. Call first to avoid wasting time and gas.
You'll have to read the directions. I could give you what my bag says but it might or might not be the same strength as what you buy and I don't want to give you the wrong advice.
Most plant foods are not available to the plant unless outdoor temperature is 55 degrees so you have time to apply it.
Don't overfeed: more is not better.
I recently read that if your soil is naturally more alkaline than acidic, you should use the aluminum in combination with the sulphur. The sulphur helps with the uptake of the aluminum to the plant. Last year I sent my other half to the garden center and asked him to pick up some aluminum sulfate. He wasn't grasping my request so I told him to just ask the employees for the stuff that blues hydrangeas. He came home with sulphur. I used that and it did just as the label said it would. But my soil is slightly acidic to begin with, in the case of alkaline soil, use both if you like the blues.
Good to know. Thanks, Louise.
