This is the second year I've had it in the ground, and no blooms! The tag claims it's supposed to be one of the first bloomers of the season for hydrangea, but still, nothing but leaves (nice ones!) from golden crane. Invincibelle Spirit, Plum Passion, Great Star and Bombshell are all priming to bloom. I'm zone 7b, Lake Stevens Wa, just a hop skip and a ferry ride from Dan's place. It's sitting in part Sun, well watered, I did an organic fertilizer (all purpose) in late April, loamy soil. Anyone have a similar problem or might know what gives?
trouble with golden crane hydrangea- Dan Hinkley intro
Hydrangeas can take 1-3 years to become established and behave as the literature claims so give it some more time. Being early to bloom can affect it if the flower buds get zapped by cold weather. However, this augustipetala should produce blooms later on too, in which case we are talking about seeing bloomage soon or in July. Think Paniculata Bombshell, which is notorious for not producing blooms in the first few years.
GC's track record in the US is unknown yet but it may turn out to be quite finicky to some of our winters since its origin is a location with mild, above freezing winters with few dips below the freezing mark. I would consider it as a Teller Hybrid, a hydrangea best kept to Zones 7 or maybe even warmer. If this happens regularly, I would also try winter protection even though you are in Zone 7. But again, it is supposed to rebloom so I would expect "sooome" blooms hopefully soon. The reblooming may result in "treating" it like a paniculata if winters kill the blooms (panics bloom in mid-late June or in July).
Problem and solutions to lack of blooms: dense shade causes a reduction in bloomage; pruning on July or later kills the "old" wood flower buds that open in Spring; too much nitrogen (as found in some Miracle Gro formulations so do not apply often) makes the plants have nice lush dark green leaves and little or no flowers; watch out for lawn fertilizer that might fall by the hydrangea too (lawn fertilizer is full pack of nitrogen); a 1/2 cup to 1 cup of cottonseed meal or organic compost in Spring should suffice for the whole year; I add some coffee grounds, liquid seaweed or liquid fish during the growing season but I stop all fertilizers at the end of June so the plant will go dormant on schedule; if allowed to go dormant late, cold weather in the Fall can kill the flower buds too; once flower buds are produced in July-ish, periods of dry soil and wet soil over and over again can also kill the invisible flower buds so try to maintain the soil as evenly moist as you can.
Luis
This message was edited Jun 25, 2014 7:36 AM
Thank you Luis, I'll just try to be patient and give it some more time to settle in. Thanks for all the great info! I've talked to it, so that should work- my Asian pear and Asian plum fruited the spring I talked to them and told them they'd better perform, so fingers crossed it works this time too.