All rights reserved. The University of Minnesota is an equal opportunity educator and employer. Related topics: Yard and Garden News Featured news. Share this page:. Prune away select branches all the way to ground level or to a main stem, but make sure to retain some healthy branches to avoid losing all the flowers.
A bigleaf hydrangea can be pruned back by one-third of its total mass, but harsher pruning will weaken the shrub and cause it to languish for a season or two.
Bigleaf hydrangea is the variety most susceptible to winter bud injury. If you live in an area with severe winters, you might need to offer it some protection.
Tying the branches together and wrapping them with burlap can help the plant survive winter. Remove the burlap when the buds begin to swell. Smooth hydrangea, including the popular cultivars H. It's a round shrub with leaves that are somewhat rounded with a pointed end, paler on the underside than on the top. Blooming on new wood, smooth hydrangea does well with fairly aggressive pruning.
This shrub blooms on new wood, so pruning should be done in early spring to ensure plenty of growth for flowers. Begin by removing any branches that have been injured or killed over the winter. These branches should be removed back to the main stem or even to ground level.
Additional branches can be lightly trimmed to shape the plant and retain its rounded shape. This kind of light pruning produces a large shrub with many small flower heads. Hard pruning of a smooth hydrangea 12 to 18 inches from the ground often creates a shrub that produces fewer, but much larger flower heads. These flowers may be so large that they require propping. Also known as peegee hydrangea, panicle hydrangeas produce football or cone-shaped flower clusters in mid-to-late summer. The flowers start out white , cream, or green and slowly turn pink, drying and remaining on the plant long after the leaves have fallen.
Panicle hydrangea blooms on new wood; it accepts—and even prefers—fairly heavy pruning. During the growing season, you can deadhead the flowers remove spent flowers as they fade. This often helps prolong the bloom season as the plant puts more energy into continued blooming. As soon as the flowers become unattractive, clean up the overall shape of the plant with selected pruning of branches that spoil the shrub's aesthetics. Panicle hydrangea makes for an attractive shrub even after flowering is complete.
Flower buds occur on new spring growth with this shrub. Some hard pruning of individual stems in late winter or early spring not only will keep the plant from becoming overgrown but also will encourage healthy growth and flowers.
This is best done by pruning out smaller wood all the way to ground level, leaving only the larger stems—which can also be partly trimmed back if needed to maintain size.
Oakleaf hydrangea is easily recognized by its oak leaf-shaped foliage. Get plant information, gardening solutions, design inspiration and more in our weekly newsletter. More about the newsletter. Copyright All Rights Reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part without permission is prohibited. Get planting advice, garden design tips and trends, monthly checklists for your area, product specials and more in our weekly newsletter.
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The other two varieties, PeeGee and Annabelle, produce buds on the new growth each year. These hardy plants can be pruned to the ground every fall and they will regrow each spring with new buds on the new wood.
This drastic pruning can take its toll on these plants and they may become weaker with age. How do you tell which variety you have in your landscape? I suggest you click on this link. This website is a great resource, providing identification clues and descriptions to determine what type of hydrangeas you have in your landscape. Most spring flowering shrubs have already set the flower buds for next year.
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