Topic: Hydrangeas

[ellie2cats]

My hydrangeas have all grown very 'leggy'.  Perhaps due to all the rain or did I not cut them back hard enough.  All very healthy but not much flower, just growing and growing and growing ..... Any suggestion please

[Oldmanofthewoods]

Mine haven't gone leggy, just huge leaves, the biggest I've ever seen.  Plenty of flowers though although they got a good hiding in the storms on friday last.  Leggy maybe not enough light?  Are they very close together or in a busy border?

Jack

[Kepouros]

I would leave them alone.  There`s still plenty of time for them to make flower buds for September, but if you cut them back now it`s far too late for them to make new shoots and flower.

Hydrangeas simply love a rainy season, and I suspect that they`re just growing a bit over-exuberantly.  You could try to correct this with a dose of Sulphate of Potash - about an eggcupfull sprinkled evenly over the whole root area of each plant, normally watered in but I doubt the need for that this weather.

[Eristic]

When you say they are leggy do you mean tall and thin, or just tall? If they flowered properly in previous years there is only two reasons I can think of for them failing this year, incorrect pruning or a late frost.

Link to pruning Hydrangea http://www.whitewisteria.co.uk/tasks/hydrangea_care.php

[Kepouros]

Unfortunately that article quoted is an oversimplification of hydrangea pruning, and bud formation is a 3 stage effort.  Unflowered shoots from  last year which still carry a tip bud are always the first to flower, shoots resulting from light pruning of last year`s flowered or unflowered shoots result in the next crop of blooms, while hard pruned shoots produce the last blooms or unflowered shoots to carry over.  If shoots are frost affected, the resulting growth will fall into either the second or the third category depending on the length of shoot so affected.

Ellie2cats suspects that she (he?) did not cut them back hard enough, which would place them in the second category, and in a normal season they should now be either flowering or well budded.  However, I also have several bushes (carefully and properly pruned, and without frost damage) which were behaving in precisely the same way and still growing vigorously as a result of the rain until I treated them all to a dose of sulphate of potash, which slowed the growth and induced the formation of flower buds - although they are still a couple of weeks at least off actual flowering.  It is nothing at all to do with the pruning in these circumstances, it is that some varieties, given enough water, will make too much lush growth at the expense of flowering, and potassium will counter this.

I would also add for the benefit of anyone else who reads the article, that too generous a helping of bonemeal will raise the pH of your soil and is likely to turn many of your blue mopheads pink, just as it will result in chlorosis, or even death, of your rhododendrons and azaleas.

[Oldmanofthewoods]

Just lost the will to live.

[Eristic]

Unfortunately that article quoted is an oversimplification of hydrangea pruning

That is the whole point. Most people do not give a bucket of manure about the complex scientific theory of the task, and I think the article covers the subject reasonably well given that unpruned and half-pruned Hydrangeas are not the easiest of subjects to photograph. By following the advice in the article the various stages of buds will be achieved automatically without fretting.

As for bonemeal, I would no longer use it on the grounds that it attracts foxes to dig holes but I doubt very much that the soil acidity will change enough to give colour change to the blooms, especially if the article's further advice is followed regarding chlorosis.

Regarding colour of Hydrangeas, it is my experience that people with blue ones want pink ones, and those that have the pink yearn for blue. In the end does the colour matter so long as the flowers look good? Some of you must have really cold weather or are doing something drastically wrong if still waiting for the plants to bloom. I expect Hydrangeas to be blooming by mid-May or early June and most years the flowers will have faded to white or brown by mid-August.

Finally, before the botanistas start getting pedantic, all references in my posts to Hydrangea flowers/blooms are to be interpreted in laymans terms to mean the big coloured ball on the end of a stick.

[Kepouros]

While I am always delighted to receive the benefit of other peoles` experience, I must confess to some amusement when it is quoted as apparent justification for second rate results, and even more so when a simple 5 line explanation of hydrangea pruning is referred to as "a complex scientific theory"

To set the matter straight, I am neither a `botanista`(whatever that is) nor (I hope) a pedant, but I have been growing hydrangeas for over 40 years, and I have almost 100 of them in over 20 different varieties in my garden.  Mine commence flowering in May, and are still producing new blooms throughout August and September, and sometimes into October- and this applies to all of the macrophylla varieties.

If your own hydrangea blooms have faded to white and brown by mid August and no more are being produced to replace them then you must be very easily satisfied. I would certainly not wish to brag about it if mine had so limited a season.  Perhaps it is time that you devoted a little more time to understanding properly the simple basic principles I have elaborated and a little less to making silly comments about them and those who have practised them successfully for decades.

[Hot_Potato]

have found all the above a bit complicated but my hydrangea (nearly 3 years old) and in a border that hardly ever any sun on it at all has been amazing......dozens and dozens of beautiful white heads of varying sizes, some as big as dinner plates.

The rain has battered it rather and all the lower ones are close to the ground but in the centre I've got 3 stems that have grown exceptionally tall (these have the biggest flower heads on them)......some of the lower heads to one side of the shrub have already started to turn either the gorgeous lime green colour that I love or a very pale pink....as the weeks go by, the green will get a bit darker, often tinged with splashes of a gorgeous shade of cranberry.....last year I dried some off and have these indoors still.

As I had so many heads on this shrub this year, I cut several and brought indoors as it seemed a shame for them to keep getting soaked & battered from the rain and they looked wonderful in a vase and lasted well.

I don't know how or when to 'prune' them tho - it certainly will need cutting back - must try to absorp above instructions :)

[rosebud]

We moved into a bungalow this May, in which it was overgrown with Hydrangers my husband got the hedgetrimmer out and tidyied up the lot of them , they are now growing well and like HP, they are flowering there socks off and i have pictures to prove it . So much for all the fancy stuff EH!!.

[Kepouros]

Unfortunately the hedge trimmer method usually only works once - then you need the `fancy stuff`

[ACE]

Perhaps all you experts can help me out.

I have seen one with 'furry' leaves and the flower is a lilac colour outer petal and a darker  centre, about 12' high. I want one, I am  in the position to take a few cuttings, but I am too impatient to wait

What is its name?

[Kepouros]

Sorry Ace.  I don`t think that even a specialist Hydrangea nursery could identify the plant with certainty from the description ( or even from a photo).  Unless the soil pH in which the plant you saw is growing is very similar to those in which it was first bred the colour of the bloom may well be vastly different from its original catalogue description - it may well have started life as any colour from pink to mid blue.  Just to complicate matters, there are getting on for 2,000 varieties of Hydrange now in cultivation, and few commercial growers have more than 150 or so of them.

Your best bet is to grab your couple of cuttings and wait - may may well be able to find a couple of shoots still soft enough to take just now, which would give you the chance of a bloom or two next summer.

[Hyacinth]

Perhaps all you experts can help me out.

I have seen one with 'furry' leaves and the flower is a lilac colour outer petal and a darker  centre, about 12' high. I want one, I am  in the position to take a few cuttings, but I am too impatient to wait

What is its name?

On the tip of my tongue....starts "toros" something-or-other?? anyone else help out here? :P ;D

[ellie2cats]

Many thanks to all for the help and advice on my "Leggy Hydrangeas" I have treid the sulphate of potash and hope that will do the trick.  Have noticed that there are tiny flower buds appearing so I shall have a lovely late display when everyone else's have finished.  Every cloud has a silver lining.
Ellie2cats

[Oldmanofthewoods]

My hydrangeas have all grown very 'leggy'.  Perhaps due to all the rain or did I not cut them back hard enough.  All very healthy but not much flower, just growing and growing and growing ..... Any suggestion please

My oldest plant (only 5 years) now has huge leaves but not a single bloom.  The others are going like crazy but the older and biggest one.........................not playing the game at all!

[Lesley Jay]

Your best bet is to grab your couple of cuttings and wait - may may well be able to find a couple of shoots still soft enough to take just now.

Can you please explain a bit more about taking hydrangea cuttings - what is the best time of the year and also what do you mean by 'soft enough'? Thanks.

[Kepouros]

The optimum time for hydrangea soft cuttings is early July (in the North Midlands), although this can vary a little depending on climate. This is the point at which the shoots are firm enough not to `flop` when taken as cuttings, but still soft enough to root quickly.  Cuttings taken at this time and struck in a propagating case, or a pot with a plastic bag fitted tightly over the rim, or even in a jamjar of water, will have started rooting by the end of July or early August, and if overwintered in a cold frame will often produce one or two blooms the following summer.  Rooting is quickest with these cuttings if they are placed in full light, but away from direct sunlight - e.g. a north facing window.

Later than early July the wood becomes firmer, and cuttings will take longer to root (the later they are taken the longer the rooting period) and consequently make less growth before winter.  Hardwood (or firmwood) cuttings can be taken in October, but will not root sufficiently to be moved for a full year.