My hydrangeas were so pretty this year, but we have had temps over 100 for two weeks and they are all dried and brown now. My question is, can I cut the brown blooms off without damaging next springs bloom? Just cutting the blooms, not branches. I dread having to look at all the brown dried blooms the rest of this summer/fall season. Thanks to anyone who takes the time to answer . Lesley
Dried Up Hydrangeas
Sorry about what the heat did to your hydrangeas, Lesley. Of course you can cut off the dried up dead blooms with no harm done for next year. Hope it's a better year with more rain for you and less heat for all of us.
Thanks Pirl, I appreciate your prompt response! I will get to pruning this week-end. It is the 10th day of over 100 degrees. 105 today, which is just about to ruin my garden..Boo Hoo!! lesley
The heat is harming hydrangeas everywhere, even NJ and NY where temperatures are high but nothing like yours. We only hit 89 today but that was hot enough for us seniors.
I was going to ask this same question. I do want to ask further. Since mine are the Everlasting and forever and ever ones that keep on blooming. If they are watered well, now that the 100+ heat (I'm zone 6 also) is over, will they rebloom? Also my Vanilla Strawberry is really fried. Blooms, but the plant is not dead. I've waited to see that fabulous color I've seen pictured in ads, but this is 3 years now. Ah, patience, patience!
thanks,
Judy
They should rebloom faster if the weather consitions are right but it still may not be like in a week or so. It may take between 2-4 weeks for new blooms to form and open... sometimes more if the temperatures are high or there is little moisture. By the way, you can encourage more blooms in rebloomers by simply deadheading like you just did.
The first thing that hydrangeas will abort if there is not enough moisture will be flower buds and blooms so it is possible that the heat and-or lack of soil moisture has been the culprit with the spent looking blooms. Normally, spent blooms will go thru a progression of color changes ending in brown. If the blooms went directly to brown then assume there was a problem with either high temperatures or lack of soil moisture.
You are not the first one to complain about the lack of that magenta color seen in pictures. This plant was developed in Gorron, a town in Mayenne, France. That is in the NW corner of the country; close to the English Channel and Great Britain. If our (your) climate were to be close to the climate that they have in Gorron, it should blooms around July thru October and react color-wise similarly (start white, turn pink then magenta then brown-ish) and turn magenta when temperatures go down in the Fall months. If your weather is not similar, VS may delay turning magenta long enough that your local weather may make the shrub to go dormant instead. That is what someone from Kansas concluded when she repeatedly was unable to get magenta colors for several years. Either that or the plant was mislabeled but she did not think so.
All My Hydrangeas have faded out & need to be deadheaded. We also have had high temp. for a long period of time. They came out a lot earler this year & were a very beautiful blue. I hope that they will rebloom now that I am going to DH them this early in July. I am hoping for the best. I am not sure that I will be hurting the branches for next years crop.
if you are deadheading them, you should not be concerned. If you prune, your could affect next year's crop -maybe- because they tend to develop flower buds starting in July. But the exact moment varies and is later inm the northern half of the country. I lost a whole year's crop many years ago when I told a friend to prune all the blooms that she wanted in June and she did it in mid July. Ouch!
I have just noticed that most of my hydrangeas have much smaller blooms then last year. I too have to problem with the heat drying them out. Thank goodness I am still on well water and can water with out getting that nasty bill in the mail. I was on vacation for a week out west in Az and Utah. My oh MY they have some hot weather, and dry. But who ever said" well it is a dry heat" is nuts, it is hot...lol
Love your perspective, Marie!