Topic: Hydrangea

[Pesky Wabbit]

I have a well established Hydrangea about 1mtr wide and 1mtr high.

Its n good health,  full of lovely green leaves, but only has 2 small flowers.

How can I get it to produce more flowers ?

[valmarg]

Do you know what variety it is?  What colour are the flowers?

Most hydrangeas benefit from being 'drastically' cut back in the Spring

valmarg

[Garden Manager]

Sorry to contradict valmarg here but my understanding is that most hydrangeas flower on the previous years growth so any hard pruning in spring would cut this off, encouraging lots of leafy growth but few if any flowers.  Spring pruning usualy just involves trimming off the old flowers which are retained for winter interest and protection. Overgrown shrubs can be hare pruned but you will loose flowering for one year.

If you are doing this and still getting few flowers, try giving the plant a hight potash feed (eg tomato food) at regular intervals during the growing season. This should stimulate flower bud production.

[valmarg]

Sorry, I should have said some, not most.

We only have one variety, paniculata Grandiflora, and boy does it need hacking back.  If left to its own devices we wouldn't have much else in the garden.;D  It is a beautiful white flowered variety.  Apparently the more you cut it back in Spring the bigger the mopheads are, which is fine until you get torrential rain like last year, and then they're all on the ground, but it was lovely to see the blue tits landing on the flowers and having a bath in the water that was trapped on them.

valmarg

[Pesky Wabbit]

The Hydrangea in question is a mophead, mostly red, but can have some blueish red flowers

My autumn pruning is to remove a few of the older stems from ground level.

My spring pruning is to only remove the old flower heads.

I have never fed it (but will do next year).

[valmarg]

Your hydrangea sounds like the sort Garden Apprentice mentioned, and the instructions GA gave are the best way to treat it, as opposed to the one I have. ;D

I have to say, like GA suggests, if something is not giving enough flowers they get the potash treatment, and a threat of being binned. ;D

valmarg

[Pesky Wabbit]

Thanks, I'll give it a very stern talking to tonight.

[KathrynH]

My hydrangea didn't do very well for years. Then I dumped a load of pond weed round it, simply because I didn't know what else to do with the weed and you should have seen it take off! Since then, I have given it a regular supply of pond weed and it thrives. If you don't have a pond I would suggest you beg/borrow/steal it from someone who does. There should be plenty available at this time of year.

[Fork]

I have one that i would like to move.

Could someone tell me the best time to move it please?

[Garden Manager]

I haven't got a hydrangea so have no actual experience of moving one but I would guess autumn or early spring would be the 'rough guide' times, since they are usually the best times to move any shrub. I suppose it depends a bit on variety and hardiness. Someone with experience of a successful hydrangea move will no doubt clarify matters a bit more.

I hope this helps.