Beautiful plants called hydrangeas do well in the climate of California. The hydrangea shrub is a mainstay in gardens due to its fullness and vivid flower clusters. You can find many types of the hydrangea macrophylla plant by taking any street. Once you understand the fundamentals of planting and pruning hydrangeas, taking care of them is pretty easy.
What is the ideal location for hydrangea planting?
Plant hydrangeas close to a water source in an area with lots of light. Choose a location in the South where there is morning sun and afternoon shade. Hydrangeas can tolerate full-day sun in the north.
What is the key to hydrangea growth?
Hydrangeas have huge bloom heads and exude an old-fashioned elegance. How to plant and take care of beautiful floral bushes is explained in our hydrangea growing guide. Additionally, learn the answers to frequently asked questions like “why aren’t my hydrangeas blossoming this year?”
About Hydrangeas
These elegant plants are simple to grow, withstand nearly any sort of soil, and produce an abundance of blossoms that are unmatched in the world of shrubs for their stunning flowers. Clear blue, vivid pink, frosty white, lavender, and rose blossoms sometimes grow on the same plant, enticing us with their colors.
From container gardens to shrub borders to group plantings, hydrangeas are great for a variety of garden locations. Breeders seem to give us more possibilities every year, and gardeners have countless expectations for bloom size and color. Varieties abound. Pay attention to the species listed below to get an idea of how your hydrangea will develop as some require different maintenance. The joys you experience will be enhanced when you know what to expect.
Enjoy this tribute to hydrangea beauty and read our guide below to discover how to grow hydrangeas.
Where to Plant Hydrangeas
- The majority of hydrangeas like fertile, moisture-rich soils that drain well. Compost can help improve bad soil.
- Hydrangeas typically prefer some sun. In an ideal world, they would receive full sun in the morning and then some afternoon shade to avoid the intense midday sun. The Bigleaf Hydrangea (H. macrophylla), with its huge, prone-to-wilting leaves, is a prime example of this. Some kinds can withstand more direct sunlight.
- Depending on the kind, place hydrangeas anywhere between 3 and 10 feet apart. Plants should always be spaced according to their anticipated mature size!
When to Plant Hydrangeas
- The optimum season to plant hydrangeas is in the fall, followed by spring. The cooler shoulder seasons are the ideal times to plant shrubs because they will have plenty of time to build a strong root system before the intense heat of summer or the bitter cold of winter.
- In the early morning or late afternoon, plant the shrubs. The plant is less prone to experience heat stress from direct sunshine because it is typically cooler.
How to Plant Hydrangeas
- Gently remove the hydrangea from its container and examine the root ball. Snip off any rotten or dead sections, and if the plant is very root-bound, pry the roots free.
- Make a hole that is two to three times as big and as deep as the root ball. The top of the planting hole should be level with the base of the plant, which is where the stem joins the earth.
- After placing the plant in the hole, add enough soil to fill it halfway. generously hydrate. Fill the remaining space in the hole with soil once the water has been absorbed.
- once more, thoroughly rinse.
How to Grow Hydrangeas from Cuttings
Cuttings of hydrangeas can be easily grown. They easily take root, and the process is a wonderful teaching tool for propagation. This is how you do it:
- Find a branch on a mature hydrangea that is fresh growth and has not flowered. In comparison to older growth, new growth will appear lighter in color, and the stem won’t be as firm.
- Make a horizontal incision 4 to 5 inches down from the branch’s tip. Make sure your cutting has at least three to four pairs of leaves.
- Trim the cutting’s lowest pair of leaves so that they are flush with the stem. If you can afford to remove more than one pair of leaves, do so. Roots develop more readily from these leaf nodes. But make sure to leave at least two pairs of leaves at the cutting’s tip.
- Remove the tip half of any leaves that are still pretty large by cutting them in half. This keeps the leaves from slamming into the sides of the plastic bag you’ll later use to cover the cutting (to keep the humidity up).
- (Optional) Sprinkle rooting hormone and a plant antifungal powder on the stem’s leafless area (both available at a local hardware or garden store). This will promote roots and deter decay.
- Prepare a small pot and put moistened potting soil inside. The cutting should be planted in the ground, buried down to the first remaining pair of leaves. Lightly water the area surrounding the stem to close any air spaces.
- Wrap a plastic bag loosely around the entire pot. To prevent the cutting’s leaves from rotting, make sure the bag is not touching them. The bag can be supported by chopsticks or other such objects to keep it off the leaves.
- Put the pot in a warm location that is protected from the wind and sun.
- Only rewater your cutting after the top layer of soil is dry after checking on it every few days to make sure it isn’t decaying. In a few weeks, hopefully, the cutting will start to root! If you feel resistance when you gently tug on the cutting, roots have grown.
Watering
- Make sure hydrangeas get enough water for the first year or two after planting and throughout any droughts.
- Over the course of the growing season, water at a rate of 1 inch per week. Three times a week of heavy watering is preferable to shallow watering. Root growth is promoted by this.
- All varieties of hydrangeas benefit from constant moisture, but bigleaf and smooth hydrangeas need more water.
- If the soil is too dry, the leaves will wilt, and there won’t be enough moisture for the flowers to bloom.
- To water thoroughly while keeping moisture off the flowers and leaves, use a soaker hose.
- The best time to water hydrangeas is in the morning to protect them from disease and get them ready for the heat of the day.
- Under your hydrangeas, spread organic mulch to help keep the soil cool and moist, gradually add nutrients, and enhance soil texture.
Fertilizing
You might not need to fertilize hydrangeas if your soil is rich. When fertilizer is applied in excess, blossoms are sacrificed in favor of green growth. A soil test is the most effective tool for determining your fertility requirements.
Apply fertilizer according to the type of hydrangeas you have. Every variety has varied requirements and will profit from applying fertilizer at various times.
- Several mild fertilizer applications in March, May, and June are beneficial for bigleaf hydrangeas.
- Two applications in April and June work best for oakleaf and panicle hydrangeas.
- The only time smooth hydrangea plants require fertilizing is in the late winter.
Winter Protection
- Cover plants with bark mulch, leaves, pine needles, or straw in the fall, at least 18 inches deep. If at all feasible, create cages out of chicken wire or snow fencing and cover the entire plant, including the tip, with the cages. (Avoid using maple leaves; they have a tendency to mat after becoming wet and may suffocate the plant.)
How to Prune a Hydrangea
Many of the queries from readers concern hydrangea trimming. It makes sense that it’s unclear because it relies on the hydrangea kind. Fortunately, identifying which type you have makes determining the best pruning strategy simple. Discover the fundamentals below, then read more about pruning different varieties of hydrangea here.
Pruning Common Hydrangeas
The Bigleaf cultivar of Hydrangea macrophylla is the most popular garden hydrangea shrub. (For more, see below.)
Hydrangeas with large leaves, such as Bigleaf (H. macrophylla), Oakleaf (H. quercifolia), Mountain (H. serrata), and Climbing (H. anomala subsp. petiolaris), are pruned AFTER the summer blooms have passed. On stems from the previous season, these kinds bloom (“old wood).
- Avoid pruning after August 1 since flower buds actually grow in the late summer and bloom the next season.
- Dead wood should only be removed in the fall or very early spring.
- To stimulate branching and fullness, trim one or two of the oldest stems by cutting them all the way to the ground.
- Pruning the stems all the way to the base is necessary if the plant is old, neglected, or injured. For the following season, you’ll lose the flowers, but you’ll also revive the plant for subsequent ones.
- The huge Mopheads should not be deadheaded (faded flowers removed); instead, you should leave them over the winter and trim them back in the early spring (to the first healthy pair of buds). Deadheading Lacecaps is OK; simply trim down to the second set of leaves below the bloom head.
- Avoid pruning unless it is absolutely required while growing H. macrophylla (and H. serrata) cultivars in Zones 4 and 5, and then only after blooming. If not, merely remove dead stems in the spring.
Pruning Other Hydrangeas
Hydrangeas called Panicle (H. paniculata) and Smooth (H. arborescens) are clipped BEFORE flower buds develop. On stems from the current season, these kinds blossom (“new wood).
- When the plant is dormant in the late winter, prune. The plant will therefore grow new buds in the spring that will result in blossoms even if the winter kills the buds.
- In general, avoid pruning to “shape the bush” and just remove dead branches.
If I live in Northern California, when should I prune my hydrangea?
Shrubby hydrangeas flourish in climates with USDA Zone 6 or higher. With the exception of a very small area on the northeastern edge of the state, which borders Nevada, they are therefore perfect landscaping plants for almost all of California. As deciduous plants, hydrangeas benefit from annual pruning to promote new growth, eliminate damage, and regulate the size and shape of the shrub as necessary. After all of the flower heads have fallen off or when they start to look worn out in the landscape, hydrangea shrubs should typically be pruned annually in the fall or early winter in California.
Remove any flower heads that are dead all the way to the parent stem, which is the wood or green stem from which the flower stem emerges. Using clean, precise pruning shears, make all of your cuts on the bias. Trim back and discard any branches or foliage that is diseased, infected, broken, or otherwise compromised.
- Shrubby hydrangeas flourish in climates with USDA Zone 6 or higher.
- After all of the flower heads have fallen off or when they start to look worn out in the landscape, hydrangea shrubs should typically be pruned annually in the fall or early winter in California.
To encourage the growth of new flowering branches, prune away a third of the oldest branches each year. To preserve the hydrangea’s natural architecture, disperse the pruning cuts uniformly across the shrub. Depending on the species of your hydrangea, cut down to the main trunk or to the ground.
By trimming the branch tips to the right length, you can reduce the shrub’s size or change its shape as needed. Size-pruning of the hydrangea species macrophylla and oakleaf should be done in the late summer right after bloom. In the fall or winter, prune the size of hydrangea species with panicles, climbing stems, and smooth leaves.
In California, how much sun do hydrangeas require?
Hydrangeas are something I’d like to plant. What information do you have regarding their expanding needs?
With their enormous flower clusters that come in a range of colors, including blue, purple, pink, and white, hydrangeas continue to be a well-liked flowering shrub in California, where they have been grown since the turn of the 20th century. From early spring to summer, they are in blossom.
There are more than 20 species and hundreds of cultivars of hydrangeas. The Garden or Big Leaf Hydrangea, also known as H. macrophylla, thrives in Southern California. H. macrophylla is a deciduous shrub that reaches heights of 4 to 8 feet and a maximum width of 4 feet. It has a symmetrical, rounded appearance. The plant has up to 8-inch-long, coarse, thick leaves.
Here are some suggestions for planting and growing:
* Sites with filtered to partial sun are preferred for hydrangeas. If they are planted facing east, they usually do well. In coastal regions, the full sun is permissible. They flourish in early light and midday shade in hotter inland locations. Make sure there is adequate drainage at the planting site.
* To plant something in the earth, dig a hole three times as big as the container. Add native soil and an acidic amendment, such as camellia and azalea mix, up to 50%.
Put the seed in the hole with the top of the root ball just above the surface. Create a 2-inch-high rim of dirt eight to twelve inches from the plant’s base to stop water drainage.
If more soil is required, add it after watering the soil until it settles. Mulch should then be spread on top in a 1- to 2-inch layer.
* Watering frequently is crucial. Keep the soil moist at all times. Keep the soil damp but not drenched.
* Although hydrangeas come in a variety of colors, how they flower in the future depends on what you feed them. Prior to the flowering season, treatments to the soil need to be initiated in late fall and early winter in order to preserve the color of pink and blue blooms.
While acidic soils produce blue blooms, alkaline or neutral soils produce pink flowers. If you don’t treat the soil in Southern California, which has an alkaline tendency, you will get pink blooms. However, keep in mind that some pinks will remain pink and others may just change to purple from blue. Whites will also stay white.
You must change the soil so that it has an acidic pH of 4.5 to 5.0 in order to grow blue blooms. Use an acidic, water-soluble, balanced fertilizer that contains little to no phosphates to achieve this because phosphates are alkaline. This, for instance, refers to fertilizer with the label 15-2-10.
Apply 1 tablespoon of aluminum sulfate per foot of plant height every autumn or winter as well. Mix with water, then soak the ground.
You will need soil with a pH of 7.0 to 7.5 to keep pink blossoms. Superphosphates should be added to the soil in the fall or winter together with a well-balanced, water-soluble fertilizer.
* Pruning hydrangeas is rarely, if ever, necessary. After the blooming time in the fall, only prune if it’s really necessary to manage size. Because new flower buds are forming for the growth of the following year during the late summer and early fall, reduce the number of stems that blossomed while leaving green stems uncut.
* Hydrangea blooms, whether fresh-cut or dried, make beautiful floral arrangements. When the color of the blossoms is at its best, dry cut them by hanging them upside-down in a cool, dark place until they are dry. Within a few weeks, they will be dry.
Call (404) 636-7886 for details about the American Hydrangea Society, which has its headquarters in Atlanta.
Melissa Grisham of Aliso Viejo, a master gardener candidate at the University of California, conducted the research.