Hydrangeas: To Prune Or Not To Prune
Garden know how is important when trying to get the most abundant bloom from your hydrangeas. Hydrangeas are difficult to prune. Hydrangea bloom hue is effected by soil pH and fertilizer. Hydrangeas can be extremely particular about the light conditions that they prefer.The following notes are meant to help guide you with your different hydrangea plants so you will get the most out of them.
There are quite a few hydrangea plant types and varieties. The white hydrangeas are the kind known as hydrangea arborescence and these bloom on “new” wood. Hydrangea arborescence varieties flower on “new” wood and should be pruned in Autumn. The stalks that these put out in the spring will bloom. The popular tree like hydrangeas are also white and are called paniculata hydrangeas and they benefit from fall pruning. White blooms, fall prune is the rule here.
It gets more complicated when you realize that there are other kinds of hydrangeas called hydrangea macrophyllas-these are the kind of hydrangeas that have light pink to dark blue flowers Hydrangea macrophyllas bloom on “old” wood and can ONLY be pruned before Mid-July the year before. It might seem difficult at first but once you get it your hydrangeas will look great?And probably not last but certainly not least is oakleaf hydrangea which blooms on “old” wood. So when would you prune it?? Before mid july or no later than august the summer before.
There are a few things you need to do in order to promote your hydrangea macrophyllas to bloom in pink or blue. Add aluminum and increase soil acidity in order to obtain blue flowers on your hydrangeas. To help increase soil acidity one can use pine needle mulch and put some rusty nails and coins around the base of the plant. Good luck trying to change the pH of your soil:a daunting task. If pink hydrangeas are the goal then try to remove aluminum from you soil by decreasing the acidity pH. Incidentally if you can’t get them to bloom in exactly the right color you were hoping for you can always put a few recycled glass gazing globes on designer gazing ball stands in the hydrangea bushes in blue or pink to get the color that way. It looks nice and gives you the color accent you are looking for without all the hard labor of transforming your soil pH.
Hydrangeas have very special light requirements and can look unhealthy if they are not in the right location. Hydrangeas need part shade. Full sun is not recommended for hydrangeas as they will look unhealthy and not flourish. They will live in full shade, but they won’t look good in full shade. They do best when they are plante in a spot that gets morning sun and afternnoon shade. And as the name suggests they do not do well in drought(dry) conditions so remember to water them regularly and they should grow so abundantly you can use them as a hedge to hide an unsightly air conditioning unit, or plant them around the base of a bird feeder to hide all the spent seeds.
These tips are meant to help you achieve all your hydrangea bloom dreams. It is imprtant to have some information about what hydrangea plant you have before you prune or plant it. The bountiful bloom on these plants will be your reward if you can just follow these simple rules.
Tags: arborescence, cool garden things, gardening, hydrangeas, macrophyllas, oakleaf, paniculata, pruning
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