Topic: hydrangea

[Mrs Ava]

My hydrangea - an established plant, been in the ground for at least 8 years that we know of, has suffered a fare bit of die back over the winter.  Lots of the central stems have died, and today I removed them all.  Is this normal?  Do they have a shortish life??  I would say that maybe drought was the problem, but to be honest, our garden is wet almost 12 months of the year!

[laurieuk]

Although the name hydrangea means it likes some water if your garden is wet through the winter this could well be the reason for the die back..If you feed with a high potash feed towards the end of the summer you could ripen the wood better to stand the winter.

[KevB]

May just be a "Lone Ranger", a one off year!! they cant be great all the time  (I think)
good luck
KevB

[Hyacinth]

I've quite a few hydrangeas - and some in the more exposed areas are like yours, EJ....I've put it down to the frost and hail we've had at unexpected times, given that the extreme weather was sandwiched between mild stuff. Poor things were woken up by the sun, bashed on the head by the hailstones, woken up...got to get out and cut mine down, too.....BUT...see that there's lots of new growth from the base emerging. I've been seeing exactlythe same pattern in other gardens, too.

Hope this reassures you a bit?

Cheers! Lish