I hope I'm just being a nervous Nellie....and I know there is probably nothing I can do other than wait and see, but I'm getting kind of concerned about my Macrophylla Merritt's Supreme. Instead of doing the cage with leaves this year I put a wooden box frame around it and attached styrofoam sheeting as winter protection. When I took the styrofoam away, which I did gradually, I thought it was looking pretty good. I dilligently kept it covered at night until the danger of frost/freeze was over. Actually, technically it's still not over, so I am ready to cover it again if need be.
The problem is that I have new growth at the top of every single cane ( plant is about 3' high, 4' wide)...healthy looking green pom poms. There are about 3 or 4 shoots of new growth coming up from the base as well. The issue is that I see very little new growth between the tops of the canes and the ground. There are some buds there that look alive and I can see green peeking out, but it seems like absolutely nothing is happening there from one day to the next. Like the buds have just stalled out or something. They look no different to me than they did weeks ago. This time last year the canes were evenly leafed out from top to bottom. Everything else in the garden shows visible signs of growth from day to day, but not those buds!
I'm starting to panic that I'm going to have one really odd looking hydrangea this year if those buds don't kick it into gear, with leaves on top and at the bottom but nothing in between...am I right to worry? What the heck is going on here?
This message was edited May 15, 2008 8:49 PM
Stalled buds
I'd be patient for a little while longer--if it didn't have buds at all then I'd figure that part had died off, but if it's got buds and they're still green then I imagine they'll grow eventually. If you're still getting cold weather, something that's a bit cold sensitive is probably not going to be too eager to grow quickly.
Yeah, I'll try not to let my pessimism overtake me, but it's not looking good. The temps have been normal for this time of year, I think. There are also less buds in general over last year, I think. It came up so full and lush last year, and now I'm really regretting my decision to go with the box over the bin full of leaves as protection. Maybe it didn't do a good enough job protecting them....or maybe I covered it too late. I still don't really understand the right time to put on your winter protection. I just hope that it looks relatively normal as the weeks go on....but if those buds don't pop, I don't see how it can. I can't figure out why the tops all made it though...seems like they'd be the first to die.
Meanwhile, "Blushing Bride" is putting out tons of new growth and I even see a flower bud already. Can I go ahead and prune off all the upper parts of the canes, since there are no buds there...or do I just leave them? I imagine they'll get covered by the new growth soon enough.