I forgot to prune my hydrangeas last year. Spring is just starting and I noticed some green at some of the nodes. If I prune them way back now, will I lose all the flowers this year?
THANKS
Is it too late?????????????
Hi Kell, if it's a Hydrangea macrophylla which blooms on old wood (most of the macrophylla's are in this category) then if you prune now you will lose your flowers for this year. There are some newer reblooming cultivars such as 'Endless Summer', if it's one of those then they bloom on new and old wood so you can prune them now and they'd be fine. But if you don't know what cultivar it is then I would play it safe and not prune it until after they bloom.
No, it is not one of the new ones, but a Hydrangea macrophylla. Actually I have 5 huge ones. I got them from HD years ago. I am so mad at myself. So even if I just take off the top it won't bloom?
One of my problems is last year they blooms at all different times, it was so odd. And not in early June as they have in the past.
Well, I can't deal with them this way, they are so tall. So I may just have to bite the bullet. The rest of my yard is bad too so why have anything that will bloom? LOL
Then again they are in a row underneath a row of Tibouchina trees. Well the trees may be toast so I might as well let these grow up and over the fence height for I will have to cut the Tibouchinas lower if not down.
THANKS Liz
Unfortunately I think the flowers grow on the ends of the branches, so if you cut the tops off you'll lose them. But if there are some lower down shorter branches and you leave those alone, they might have flowers and then at least you'll have something! My hydrangeas bloomed at weird times last year too--I had one that didn't start blooming until November!
I'll keep my fingers crossed for your Tibouchinas...I have an 'Athens Blue' and heteromalla that are probably toast (they were both small and cheap and easily replaced fortunately!). My precious organensis spent the winter in the greenhouse along with a few others so it's definitely OK (and has been blooming like crazy all winter!)--let me know if you need cuttings! I'm not good with starting cuttings at all, but you're welcome to come over and take some anytime if you know how to get them to root!
Well shoot Liz. What are you doing that I am not?? I moved my organensis into the hoop house before the big freeze and I haven't gotten 1 flower yet. WOE is me again. But it looks good so I guess I should not complain. THANKS for your offer! How did you root them?
Do you heat the hoophouse? I heat the greenhouse and that's the only thing I can think of that would maybe make a difference, on normal nights it keeps the greenhouse around 50ish, and during our cold snap it stayed a little below 40. I haven't fertilized them at all or done anything else except water them. As far as cuttings--I can't root a cutting of anything to save my life, but I figured if you had lost yours in the cold you could come over here and take some cuttings, I figured you probably knew how to do them! I don't think there's anything special about them compared to any other plant, so if you can usually root cuttings I'm sure you could do these too, I just can't!.
Kell...I let mine go without pruning once as well. They had been huge...maybe 5 ft. plus when in bloom and I pruned them around this time. They came back just fine. I only take them back to about 3 ft. when I prune them.
Also, the more canes you leave, the more flowers you'll get. Leaving just a few canes will only get you a few huge blooms, so I just always cut mine straight across the top and leave all the different sized stems.
I wouldn't cut them back to ground level...then for sure you'll never get flowers this year, like Liz said, they bloom on the old wood.