Submitted by Mary Leigh Oliver AUBURN UNIVERSITY, Ala. — The complexity of caring for blooming hydrangeas may be obscured by their stunning appearance. You shouldn’t avoid pruning out of dread of the unknown, but you should be careful to perform the task at the appropriate time.
- By adhering to these tried-and-true pruning guidelines, you may become an expert in the care of hydrangeas and ensure that they continue to produce stunning flowers.
- Pruning Purpose According to Mallory Kelley, an extension agent in Alabama, “You could never trim hydrangeas and they will still flower, but at a slower rate, and often times the flowers are much smaller.” If your hydrangeas have been flowering well this season, you might be asking yourself why it is important to prune them.
Pruning is essential to the development of healthy hydrangeas, despite the fact that doing so may appear to be a pointless and hopeless endeavor. The hydrangeas will produce more branches if you prune them. The more you prune, the more it will boost bud creation and flowering for the next year, and as a result, the growth will be greater.
Different Types of Hydrangea Because there are so many different species of hydrangeas that are commonly seen in Alabama flowerbeds, pruning these plants may be a difficult task for many gardeners. Mophead and oakleaf hydrangeas are examples of varieties that bloom early in the spring and therefore require trimming as soon as they finish blooming.
During the summer and fall, they will generate new wood, which will result in buds for the next spring. If you wait until they are dormant in the winter, you will be removing the buds when you prune the tree, according to Kelley. “This removes where the blooms would grow the next spring.” Other types, like as Lime Lights, that need far more sunlight may bloom considerably later.
In central Alabama, these varieties often bloom around July 4. These particular hydrangeas should be pruned in the winter, when they are dormant, in contrast to the mophead and oakleaf varieties. After they have been trimmed and shaped, hydrangeas should be fertilized in the spring to further promote new growth.
Proper Pruning Before beginning to prune, it is advisable to start by removing any sick or dead material from the plant. According to Kelley, “sometimes hydrangeas can incur some winter damage to tissue that did not have the opportunity to harden off before winter temps.” You will need to remove this tissue as well.
- After removing any dead material, mophead and oakleaf hydrangeas require no additional maintenance until they cease flowering in early summer.
- The hydrangea should then be pruned back to limit its size at the branch junctions, or you can just snip off the spent flower a few inches below it.
- When pruning, if gardeners notice a new bud growing, they should be sure to cut just above the bloom rather than the bud itself.
Some gardeners find the chore of pruning to be somewhat scary. When it comes to hydrangea trimming, according to Kelley, “you can’t make too large of a mistake.” It is important to not be frightened of pruning because doing so will encourage new growth and fresh blossoms.
If the hydrangea seems like it is having trouble, the problem may not be solved simply by cutting it. It’s possible that the problems are due to poor watering, a lack of cleanup at the soil level, or an inadequate amount of early sun. According to Kelley, the easiest thing to do if the prospect of pruning gets overwhelming is to just keep this fact in mind: regardless of the variety, it is safe to prune hydrangeas after the flowers have faded.
When you are finished with the pruning, bring the beauty inside and utilize the blossoms to create a variety of different flower arrangements. Visit the website of the Alabama Cooperative Extension Service at www.aces.edu for further information on how to prune hydrangeas.
What time of year hydrangeas bloom?
When do hydrangeas bloom? The blooming season of hydrangeas varies depending on the kind and cultivar of the plant, as well as the planting zone in which it is grown. The majority of hydrangeas with new growth start to produce buds in the early summer, and these buds will eventually open into flowers the following spring, summer, and early fall.
Will hydrangea come back in spring?
These hydrangeas are simple to cultivate since they bloom continuously throughout the growing season, notwithstanding any care or attention that may be given to them. They may be cut all the way down to the ground in the autumn so that they will come back in the spring with an abundance of flowers.
Do hydrangeas bloom in March?
When Do Hydrangeas Bloom? Hydrangeas are blooming shrubs with woody stems that are grown for their stunning flowers. The basic answer to the question of when hydrangeas flower is that hydrangeas typically produce flowers from the middle of spring to the end of summer or the beginning of September.
Are hydrangeas available in April?
Flowers in November and December: A Question for the Experts However, I believe that by the end of November or the beginning of December, hydrangea will no longer be in season. If possible, please send me a bouquet that includes some white cabbage roses and blue hydrangea.
Is there a different kind of blue flower that I could use instead? Many thanks Professional in Amy Plant Reply: It will come as good news to learn that florists may get hydrangeas at any time of the year. Therefore, you won’t have to worry about replacing the hydrangea blooms in your bridal bouquet with another type of flower.
Even though hydrangeas are most commonly utilized in the spring (March, April, and May) and summer (June, July, and August), we are beginning to notice an increase in the number of fall weddings that use hydrangeas (September, October, November). Hydrangea blossoms are frequently used by women getting married in the winter months of December, January, and February because they are huge and white.
Should hydrangeas be planted in sun or shade?
Hydrangeas, in general, do best when given filtered sunlight. In a perfect world, they will be exposed to the sun all morning, but then they will be provided some protection from the scorching heat of the midday sun in the afternoon. This is especially true for the Bigleaf hydrangea, also known as H. macrophylla, which is susceptible to wilting due to the great size of its leaves.
What happens if you don’t prune hydrangeas?
What are the consequences of failing to trim hydrangeas? – If you don’t trim hydrangeas, ultimately they will seem like a tangled mass of woody stalks, and the blooms will get smaller and less beautiful. This can happen if you don’t prune them. Inadequate pruning is frequently to blame when hydrangeas fail to produce flowers for their owners.
Should I cut the old blooms off my hydrangea?
Are the blooms on your hydrangea shrubs beginning to fade or have they already turned brown? There is no need to be concerned because this is only an indication that it is time to remove the blossoms, which is a process that is known as deadheading. When you remove the spent flowers off hydrangeas, you do the plants no harm at all.
The removal of spent flowers causes blooming shrubs to redirect their energy into the growth of their roots and leaves rather than continuing to produce seeds. This is because flowering shrubs are pollinated by insects. The process of removing spent flowers from plants helps them become more robust and healthy; therefore, you will be doing your hydrangeas a favor if you perform this task.
When the flowering season is finished, the knowledgeable gardeners at Millcreek Gardens explain how to deadhead hydrangeas, when to begin the job, and how to safeguard your bushes after the blooms have fallen off. 
Should I deadhead hydrangeas?
Removing Spent Blooms from Hydrangeas Because hydrangea blossoms are so large, removing spent blooms from a hydrangea may make a significant impact in the amount of energy that is directed into other vital aspects of the plant’s development. You should continue this procedure all the way through the flowering season to maintain your plant looking as healthy as possible and to stimulate more flowers to grow.
The technique used to remove spent hydrangea blossoms from the plant varies according to the season. If it is still before the month of August, you should clip the spent blossoms while leaving a long stem attached to each one. Check out the point on the stem where it joins the main branch; you ought to find some buds there.
You may trim the stem back to whatever length you choose, just be sure to leave the buds unharmed. If the current month is August or later, it is likely that the plant is developing new buds along the stems in preparation for the next spring. Beginning with the spent flower and working your way down the stem, check in and around each group of leaves.
How do you wake up hydrangeas?
Directions: –
- Bring the water in a kettle or saucepan to a boil, then leave it aside so it may somewhat cool off. It should still be at a very high temperature. The water should be poured into a vase.
- Place the hydrangeas on the cutting board, and using the sharp knife, cut an angle of 45 degrees into the end of each hydrangea. After that, make a thin incision that runs vertically up the middle of the stem that you just trimmed.
- Put the hydrangea or hydrangeas in the vase that’s been filled with warm water.
- After letting it set for at least an hour, you should be good to go. hydrangeas that have been revived.
Xo Tori
Can you cut a hydrangea back to the ground?
Late in the winter, before the start of the new growth season, prune these bushes. Shrubs that flower on new wood often begin flowering in the middle of summer and continue doing so until the first frost of the fall season. This is because they need to develop and set buds in the same year that they bloom, so they start blooming later than old-growth bloomers.
If you want to keep these shrubs at their best, you should prune them regularly, but you should try to avoid doing so while the flower buds are just beginning to open.1. If you want your flowers to be larger, you need to trim them all the way back. These bushes can be pruned completely to the ground either during the end of winter or at the beginning of spring.
If smooth hydrangeas are trimmed severely like this every year, the plants will produce considerably bigger flowers; nevertheless, many gardeners prefer smaller blooms on stems that are more robust.2. Leaving a framework of old growth behind will help avoid flopping.
It is common for the branches of certain hydrangeas to topple over beneath the weight of their blossoms, particularly after receiving overhead watering or during a substantial downpour. Cutting the stems to a height of between 18 and 24 inches might be one solution to reduce this flopping problem. This will offer a robust structure to support future growth.
— The University of Arkansas Cooperative Extension Service has a horticulture specialist on staff in the form of Janet Carson. Photos, with a few exceptions, courtesy of Steve Aitken Chuck Lockhart provides several examples. 
Do hydrangeas bloom all spring and summer?
Hydrangeas, scientifically known as Hydrangea macrophylla, are available in a dizzying array of varieties and hues. Some varieties of hydrangea start producing blooms in the middle of summer and continue doing so until fall, while others start producing flowers in the middle of summer and continue doing so until October.
What month do you cut hydrangeas?
HOW TO PRUNE HYDRANGEAS – The type of plant determines when and to what extent it should be pruned, depending on the category it belongs to: Advice Regarding the Pruning of Group 1: As the days become shorter and the temperatures get cooler in the late summer and fall, the buds for the flowers that will bloom the next year begin to develop.
- In most cases, all that is required to preserve the plant’s form, size, and overall health is a simple trimming, which consists of clipping away any broken, diseased, or dead branches.
- In that case, you should steer clear of any severe pruning.
- During the summer, pruning should take place as soon as possible after the flowers have finished blooming, but no later than August 1st.
You shouldn’t prune in the fall, winter, or spring since you risk removing fresh buds when you do so. It is possible to foster several, smaller flower heads rather than fewer, larger bloom heads by doing tip trimming on the branches when the leaves appear in the spring. Flower buds develop on the growth of the current year. When the leaves are just starting to emerge in the spring is the ideal time to prune. Reduce the length of the branches by one-half to one-third and make your incision right above a node. Next, get rid of any branches that are brittle or spindly.
- When it comes to H.
- Arborescens, doing very little pruning results in the production of huge, strong bushes that bear numerous, tiny flower heads.
- The use of severe pruning techniques between 12 and 18 inches from the ground, or even all the way to the ground, will result in the production of fewer but bigger flower heads, which may fall over if they are not supported.
To establish a sturdy foundation for your H. paniculata plant, remove the surrounding smaller wood while retaining the bigger stems through the process of pruning. Pruning can have an effect on the size of the flower heads. A more severe kind of pruning will result in more strong shoot growth as well as bigger flower heads that produce fewer flowers. If you prune more gently or only at the tips, you can end up with fewer large flower heads but more of them overall.
When caring for hydrangeas, it is important to take into account their eventual size. Place them in an area where they can’t outgrow because it will need a lot of trimming to maintain them in their allotted space. Hydrangeas do not require rigorous or regular pruning; all that is required to maintain them healthy and ensure good growth and flowering is the removal of any dead wood.
Bigleaf cultivar of the Wee Bit Grumpy® hydrangea. Image caption: “Proven Winners.”
Do hydrangeas bloom in spring?
The large, ruffled flowers of the hydrangea are a show-stopping attraction in the spring and early summer. However, when they have finished their floral show, the plant will no longer produce blooms. Some gardeners find this to be a really difficult situation, and the issue of the day is how to get hydrangeas to rebloom.