Hello,
Would anyone know just by looking, what the issue is with my PeeGee Hydrangea? I purchased it about 5 years ago, in bloom, and of course it has never bloomed since. I have given it Miracle Gro this year but that hasn't solved it. Please help, I'm losing hope and I really don't want to remove it from my garden.
Thanks to anyone who has any suggestions!
Bug68
PG Hydrangea is generally a pretty tough reliable late summer blooming woody shrub.
I am concerned at the extremely modest size of a 5 year old plant. How big was it when you got it? Was it a container grown plant, or balled & burlapped? What size container, how tall? If container, did you examine and loosen the root system prior to planting?
How have you managed it so far (pruning regimen, fertilization, watering schedule, etc.)? Unless that is a poor sun angle photo, those leaves appear quite yellow and chlorotic - which indicates nutrient deficiencies and probably other root uptake problems.
Hello Viburnum Valley and thank you for your response! Your questions led me to dig into my folder to find the original tag from this hydrangea. I see I've been confused thinking this is a PeeGee when in fact it's an Endless Summer variety and may have been sold in my zone as an annual. I did purchase it in a container, have been giving it slow release fertilizer in spring and watering when there's no rain, this year I've been watering 1x/week. I'm adding pics of the tags that came with the plant, perhaps they will give you more insight. Also, the picture is an accurate depiction of the plants' foliage, it is quite on the yellow side.
Well, that is indeed news to use.
'Endless Summer' is a Bigleaf Hydrangea (Hydrangea macrophylla) which if grown permanently outdoors, will have an extremely difficult time ever blooming in your growing zone of Manitoba. I'm a bit surprised that it even survived, though you might be providing extra snow cover...
Bigleaf Hydrangea flower buds are not always reliably hardy here in tropical KY (!), and woody stems often die back. Your plant will likely never successfully overwinter a flower bud, and maybe no stems either. The plant is struggling just to have woody stems to grow leaves on successfully, and it may be losing root mass every winter.
If you ever want to see blooms on that plant, you might consider potting it up in a larger container that you can move into a balmier site (like a garage) for the winter. It doesn't need to be kept really warm and growing, but if kept just above freezing it will have a chance of retaining all the reserves of the previous growing season and having a better start with the onset of spring. Is that around August for you?
Good luck. There are good reasons that this species is considered an annual in Manitoba.
Oh wow, I didn't realize it's an Annual in my zone! I actually don't give it any extra coverage, but it's fairly protected. I think I will dig it up this fall, store it in the garage and see what happens in Spring, like in May!!
It isn't an annual but more a perennial in your region (probably dying back to the ground and sprouting new shoots from the ground). Big leaf (macrophylla) blooms on old wood so any stems from the previous year already has the bloom buds ready for the next year. There is a new class of big leaf that blooms on old and new wood so you may check those out (Endless Summer is one for instance so I am surprised you don't get a few blooms).
There are folks who go to extremes to winter protect big leaf hydrangeas - cages filled with leaves, wrapped in plastic, etc. Where there is a will, there is a way?
For your zone, check out Paniculatas as they are the hardiest hydrangeas and bloom on new wood (so you can cut those back hard in fall or very early spring and get new stems that will bloom).
