Maintaining your hydrangea can greatly impact its blooms the next year. When given enough time and the right care, hydrangeas are resilient and can recover from virtually anything.
See our comprehensive growth guide for hydrangeas here after reading the fall maintenance advice below!
Because some hydrangea kinds do not like to be clipped in the fall, it is crucial to first identify your variety.
If you have hydrangeas in your garden, you should be aware that there are two different varieties. Both types develop blossom buds, one on new wood and the other on old wood. If a stem has remained on the plant since the previous summer, it is referred to as old wood. Stems that form this season are considered new wood. The majority of hydrangea species that are found in gardens are old wood bloomers, including as Mophead, Big Leaf, Lacecap, and Oakleaf types. Check your variety once more at the neighborhood garden center.
Hydrangeas can grow for many years without being pruned, but it’s time to cut them if they become unkempt, take over a portion of the garden, or stop producing new growth. But when should they be pruned?
After the summer blooms on old wood bloomers or fall blooming hydrangeas, prune them. Old, woody hydrangeas that are pruned in the fall will not bloom the following season.
Hydrangeas that bloom in the summer or those that do so on fresh wood are clipped in the fall, after their flowering season has ended.
Early in the season, hydrangeas are brilliant and colorful, but they are difficult to preserve after being cut. Once they begin to dry on the bush, they are simpler to maintain.
Your plant will have weak, wispy growth near the bottom. Reduce them. They will consume energy that could be used by your plant to produce blossoms.
On your stems, look for any dead stumps. They won’t have sprung any buds or new wood from the original old wood. To totally remove the dead stumps, cut them to the ground at the base. This will give the new growth below a chance to flourish.
To make way for new buds to emerge, old and dead blossoms must be eliminated. To promote flowers for the following summer, remove the flower head immediately above the first few leaves.
Observe the plant’s shape from a distance. The shrub should be pruned into the shape you desire; a spherical is the traditional shape, but you can prune it however you like!
Clean up any leftover debris from the plant’s foundation. Make sure your soil is devoid of all weeds, dead flowers, and leaves.
Feed your blue hydrangeas with Holly-tone to maintain acidic soil and vibrant flowers. Alternatively, choose Flower-tone.
Feed your hydrangeas two to three times each week from spring till fall for the greatest results.
Your hydrangeas will remain healthy and vibrant for many years if you follow these simple instructions.
Cut back these shrubs in late winter before new growth begins
Shrubs that flower on young wood typically start blooming later than old-growth bloomers, beginning in June and continuing until the first frost, because they need to grow and set buds the same year that they bloom. As long as you avoid trimming when the flower buds are opening, these shrubs are understanding if it is not done at a specific period.
1. Trim the flowers all the way back for larger blooms.
These bushes can be completely removed from the ground in late winter or the beginning of spring. If cut severely like this every year, smooth hydrangeas will produce much larger flowers, but many gardeners prefer smaller blooms on stronger stems.
2. Maintain an old growth foundation to lessen flopping
Especially after watering from above or after a heavy storm, the branches of some hydrangeas frequently topple over from the weight of their blooms. Cutting the stems to a height of 18 to 24 inches will help to reduce this flopping by creating a strong framework for fresh growth.
Janet Carson is the University of Arkansas Cooperative Extension Service’s horticulture specialist.
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Do all hydrangeas require a fall pruning?
Only prune these hydrangeas in the summer after bloom, not in the fall. In August and September, old wood hydrangeas begin to form their bloom buds for the following year. It is advisable to delay pruning your hydrangeas until the following year if you don’t do it right away. If not, there won’t be any blossoms the next spring.
When pruning hydrangeas for the winter?
If and when you prune is the key to happy, healthy hydrangea flowers. Of course, fertilizing and offering the ideal environment have a lot to recommend them. However, if you don’t prune properly, your efforts will be in vain. Deadheading is not the same as trimming. Pruning refers to more drastic cutting to preserve shape or remove dead growth. However, feel free to discard spent blossoms or cut fresh ones to use in arrangements.
Hydrangeas can bloom on either fresh wood or old wood, depending on the species. The wood from which they blossom determines whether and when to prune.
Old wood-blooming hydrangeas do not require pruning and benefit from it. They’ll blossom more abundantly the next season if you leave them alone. But feel free to deadhead or gently thin. Just keep in mind that while new growth may appear, it won’t bloom until the following season. In our region, four different species blossom on aged wood. Additionally, they are not limited to the hues displayed here.
Climb using suckers. On your wall or trellis, resist the desire to remove the dormant growth.
The flower heads are more conical in appearance, and the leaves are large and resemble oak leaves. It’s a pleasant surprise for a hydrangea when its leaves turn reddish-orange in the fall.
They are very comparable to lacecap types, but smaller and with more compact leaves.
Pruning should be done in late winter or early spring on hydrangeas that bloom on new wood. Trim back to two feet to prune to shape. The next season’s blossoms are produced by strong, fresh growth that is encouraged by trimming. In our region, there are two types that bloom on fresh wood. They are also not restricted to the colors displayed.
Oakleaf variants are not included in cone-shaped blooms. Keep the blooms on throughout the winter to provide interest; even dried out, they are quite lovely.
regarded as a wild kind. They often have smaller blooms and leaves than Bigleaf variants and are completely white. They enjoy full sun and can grow very tall.
Knowing whether or when to prune now will help you avoid the disappointment of a hydrangea that doesn’t blossom. Don’t forget that a robust shrub will produce more gorgeous blossoms if it has well-draining soil and good organic fertilizer. Come on in, and we’ll show you where to go to develop your green thumb.
Can you prune hydrangeas in the late fall?
In October, some individuals realize that their neighbor had cut the blue hydrangeas on their property in half. Others ponder whether they should prune their LimeLight or other Hydrangea paniculata plants’ brown blossoms. The uncertainty surrounding the timing of hydrangea flower formation and how to prune them to ensure the greatest number of blooms each summer is added to these queries. What you should know is as follows:
1. The fall is not the time to prune blue hydrangeas. If you cut them back to tidy them up or make them shorter, the plants will still grow to the same height but produce fewer flowers the following year. When mopheads or lacecaps are pruned, a green dome of foliage forms on the top and only a few flowers appear in the middle and bottom, as seen in the image below. Therefore, avoid pruning them now, and the only pruning you need do in the spring is to remove any dead canes or tips. Only the canes or tops of the stems that are without green leaves at that time should be removed when pruning in late May.
2. You can prune LimeLight or other panicle kinds (Hydrangea paniculata variations) and Annabelle (one of the Hydrangea arborescens variants) in the late fall or early spring because they bloom on new growth. Some individuals like to prune theirs right now in order to get rid of the old, brown blossoms at the same time. The flowers do not need to be removed because they fall off and most of them blow away in the wintertime. However, there is no harm in trimming them off at any time from now until spring if you don’t like the way they look.
3. In April or May, prepare to relocate your mophead or lacecap hydrangea if it has grown too tall. Plan to replace the tall one with a shorter cultivar the next year because there are many great types that stay shorter.
4. Raking the leaves that have fallen under and around the plants is one of the best things you can do right now for mophead or lacecap hydrangeas; this helps keep the chilli thrips population in check. A recent insect that deforms Hydrangea leaves is the chilli thrip. To learn more, click here.
Three different varieties of hydrangeas in the fall are shown in this picture. The smooth hydrangea, H. arborescens, has an Annabellea variant, which is the plant on the left. Blue mophead sticks, or H. macrophylla, are the sticks in the foreground on the right. And a “Little Lime,” an H. paniculata, can be seen behind those in the background. The Annabelle and Little Lime can be clipped now, in late winter, or in the early spring because they bloom on new growth. The only method of pruning macrophyllas is the removal of dead stems.
This Nikko Blue Hydrangea was removed in the fall “to clean it up.” As you can see, the shrub has grown back to its original size of six feet tall and wide by the following July after the canes were chopped to a height of about three feet. Because the majority of the buds were eliminated during the “clean up pruning,” there are only a few blossoms. You will get very few flowers if you prune your blue hydrangeas in the spring or fall. Additionally, it is not possible to cut them again.
At this time of year, it won’t do any harm to remove the brown blossoms from your hydrangeas, but you are not required to. Some people worry that “ice and snow will stick to the blossoms and spit or break the limbs, but this isn’t really a concern. While those flowers are still in bloom, the Cape and Islands typically don’t get significant snowfall or ice storms in December. These bushes hardly ever sustain harm from snow, ice, or cold. Although it’s advised to “never say never,” nobody has ever claimed that their panicle hydrangeas were harmed by the cold in the 25 years that I have lived on Cape Cod. You can choose to remove the flowers or not. They break off in the middle of winter and become “Cape Cod Tumble Weeds” (I myself have never chopped them off.)
If the leaves on your hydrangeas resembled those shown below, make sure to remove all the fallen leaves and other debris from underneath the shrubs. This was brought on by chilli thrips, which overwinter in the trash. This pest can be controlled by removing the leaves and preventing them from going into the compost (burning or otherwise destroying them).
How are hydrangeas prepared for the winter?
Protecting flower buds is the aim of winter hydrangea care. The simplest approach is to pile 12 inches or so of mulch made of chopped-up leaves or bark around the base of the plant. After the ground freezes in the late fall, set the mulch pile there. Plants can then be exposed in the spring, when the temperature starts to stay above freezing.
How should hydrangeas be pruned for the winter?
‘PeeGee’ (Hydrangea paniculata) and ‘Annabelle’ (Hydrangea arborescence), two varieties that bloom on new wood, perform best when pruned in the fall or winter. The Old Farmer’s Almanac advises against severe cutting back on “PeeGee” varieties. Instead, remove any dead, damaged, or crossed branches back to the base of the affected branch. Trim back overgrown branches by up to one-third of their height to retain the shape of the shrub.
In the winter, once the shrub turns dormant, you can trim back an overgrown ‘Annabelle’ hydrangea to just above soil level. To prevent the plant from weakening, this rigorous trimming should only be performed once every three years at most. Only remove weak or crossed stems, pruning them off at ground level or where they join a stronger branch, if necessary.
Which month do you prune back hydrangeas?
Depending on which group the plant belongs to, the timing and extent of pruning are determined:
Advice on Pruning for Group 1:
- As the days get shorter and the weather gets colder in the late summer and fall, buds for the following year’s blooms start to form.
- Typically, removing dead, diseased, or damaged branches is all that is required to preserve shape, size, and a healthy plant. Otherwise, gentle pruning ought to be practiced.
- In the summer, trimming should begin as soon as flowering ends, but no later than August 1. Pruning should not be done in the fall, winter, or spring because you risk removing fresh buds.
- Tip-pruning the branches in the spring as the leaves begin to appear can promote more numerous, smaller flower heads as opposed to fewer, larger flower heads.
Advice on Pruning for Group 2:
- On the growth of the current year, flower buds form.
- Early in the spring, as the leaves are starting to emerge, prune.
- Just above a node, prune branches back by half to a third.
- After that, prune any fragile or spindly branches.
- Minimal trimming encourages huge, strong bushes with many of tiny flower heads in H. arborescens. Hard pruning between 12 and 18 inches from the ground, or even all the way down, will result in fewer but larger flower heads that may flop if unsupported.
- For H. paniculata, remove the surrounding smaller wood while leaving the larger stems in order to establish a sturdy foundation.
Pruning may be connected to flower head size. Shoots will grow more vigorously and flower heads will be bigger and fewer with more rigorous trimming. Smaller but more numerous flower heads may result from less aggressive or tip pruning.
Consideration of hydrangeas’ mature size is the best piece of advise. Place them in a location where they won’t outgrow and won’t need a lot of pruning to keep them in check. Hydrangeas don’t need to be pruned precisely or often; as long as dead wood is removed, they will remain healthy and continue to develop and bloom.