Bigleaf hydrangeas, which are arguably the most iconic of all hydrangeas, are in full bloom from June through July. The blooms are available in two shapes: softball-sized and spherical (mophead),
The blooms of many of these species typically have an acidic soil-blue color and an alkaline soil-pink color. Pink and blue flowers can have their colors changed by gardening professionals by modifying the pH of the soil, but white blooms cannot.
How are hydrangeas cared for in Virginia?
I have a variety of hydrangea varieties and I’m not sure when to prune them. When I pruned in the spring one year, there were no blooms. Please provide advice.
The type of hydrangea will determine how to prune it. Some hydrangeas require winter or fall pruning, while others need summer pruning. It can be really perplexing. Rest assured that pruning your hydrangea at the wrong time won’t likely destroy it. However, it is likely that your plant may have fewer flowers or it might not bloom at all the following flowering cycle.
There are 23 different varieties of hydrangeas available to gardeners. They can grow as evergreen or deciduous shrubs, tiny trees, or vines, among other things. They are tough and disease- and insect-resistant. With consistent hydration, organically rich, well-drained soil, and afternoon shade, hydrangeas thrive in Virginia.
In the United States, hydrangeas come in five different species: oakleaf, smooth, bigleaf, mountain, and panicle (tree). Both the panicle and smooth form develop their flowers on new wood, or wood that was grown that year. The remaining varieties of hydrangeas produce flowers on last season’s growth of old wood. Depending on whether the flowers develop on old or new wood determines when to prune.
Bigleaf (Hydrangea macrophylla), oakleaf (Hydrangea quercifolia), smooth (Hydrangea arborescens), and panicle (Hydrangea paniculata) varieties of hydrangea are the four that thrive in Virginia. Most likely, your yard has one or more of these species.
- The only hydrangea native to Virginia is called Bigleaf (Hydrangea macrophylla), and it is distinguished by its mophead or lacecap flower styles. Huge, clumsy, medium to dark green leaves and large blossoms are present. It grows in partial to full shade and may withstand full sun if maintained moist, reaching heights of 6 to 10 feet. Depending on the pH of the soil, blooms might be white, pink, blue, purple, or red. On the tops of stems made of aged wood, flower buds grow.
- Oakleaf (Hydrangea quercifolia) can reach heights and widths of 6 to 8 feet and thrives in both full sun and some shade. It has big, coarse foliage that ranges in color from grey to dark green and peeling bark that resembles oak leaves. Beautiful fall hues include shades of red, purple, yellow, gold, and bronze. Conical blooms come in a variety of colors, from white to light purple or pink. Old wood blossoms into flowers.
- A lesser variation, Smooth Hydrangea (Hydrangea arborescens), grows 3 to 5 feet tall and has a mounded growth habit. It thrives in partial shade or direct sunlight (with consistently moist soil). The leaves are big, rough, rounded, and green in color, ranging from medium to dark green. It has either pink or white blossoms. Blooms develop on fresh growth and can withstand severe trimming.
- Hydrangea paniculata, often known as the panicle hydrangea, grows to a height of 8 to 15 feet and a width of 6 to 12 feet. It favors total shade over partial shade. It develops as an upright, heavily branched little tree or a big bush with branches that bend while the flowers are in bloom. The plant has dark green, slender, serrated leaves. The plant has huge, white conical blooms and is extremely winter-hardy. On fresh wood, flowers bloom.
Hydrangeas benefit from pruning in general when done properly because it promotes light and air circulation that fights illness. Wait until the plant is 5 or 6 years old before pruning. For the common varieties of Virginia hydrangeas, consider the following pruning advice:
Hydrangea with smooth panicles that blooms on new wood
- When plants are dormant, in the fall or winter, prune (before new growth begins).
- Trim back the entire plant to the ground or thin down any overly dense growth.
- In contrast to not pruning, which results in larger plants with few small blooms, heavy early pruning results in smaller plants with larger blooms.
Hydrangea with oak leaves (blooms on aged wood)
- In the summer, right after blossoming, prune.
- At any time, prune the dead wood by removing the largest canes from the tree and/or cutting back the stems just above the buds.
- To enjoy the bark’s amber peeling and magnificent fall color, prune sparingly.
Hydrangea with big leaves that grows on aged wood
- Trim back the plant growth by up to one-third.
- The chance for blooming will be significantly reduced by severe spring pruning.
- After the initial flowering, prune bigleaf plants that never stop blooming because they produce flowers on both old and new wood.
NOTE: Use a pocketknife to remove a little bit of bark from the stem to ensure that you are only pruning dead wood. Avoid pruning anything that is green.
Although poor trimming is probably the reason of your plants’ lack of blooms, be sure to check out these troubleshooting suggestions to rule out other possibilities.
Now that you are informed, you can comprehend why your hydrangeas failed to bloom. Your hydrangeas appear to blossom on aged wood (like the bigleaf or oakleaf varieties). After the flower buds have grown, pruning in the spring will significantly diminish or even completely destroy that year’s blossoms.
Are you curious to find out more about this and other hydrangeas? Learn how to choose the best hydrangea for your setting and preferences, how to plant them, and how to take care of them by checking the North Carolina Extension Gardener Plant Toolbox. You can also alter the color of the blossoms if you have oakleaf or mountain hydrangeas!
Are hydrangeas a good plant for Virginia?
What ties our little piece of the horticultural world to countries like China, Japan, Korea, Indonesia, and South America? One solution would be the flamboyant, vivid, flowering bushes known as hydrangeas, which thrive just as well here in Virginia despite being indigenous to exotic, tropical places of the world.
These intrepid plants are steadfast favorites of gardeners everywhere, in part because this flowering shrub provides such great value for the money: it is substantially proportioned, produces stunning flowers, and can provide winter interest. But even the most devoted hydrangea fans can become perplexed by the abundance of information accessible on this subject. How can you tell a mophead from a lacecap?
Do they require shade or the sun? And what is this thing about the soil’s composition affecting the bloom’s color? There is plenty to learn. So, in order to make this issue more approachable and to assist you in selecting the ideal variety of this international shrub for your particular environment, here is a crash course. You will have years of famed, reliably gorgeous blossoms as payment for your labor.
The inflorescence, or flowering portion of the hydrangea, is made up of both huge, showy blooms and smaller, less noticeable blossoms. The smaller blossoms have fertile seeds whereas the larger ones are infertile. Based on how these large and small flowers are arranged and presented, many hydrangea species can be distinguished from one another by their blooms. Mophead, lacecap, and panicle are three different flower forms that they produce. Large, snowball-shaped flowers are known as mopheads. On the interior, there are a few tiny blooms, although they are largely covered by the bigger blossoms. The lacecap’s blossoms are flat clusters of flowers rather than compact and rounded blooms. The inside portion is made up of small flowers, and the outer ring is made up of the larger blooms. Additionally, panicles are fashioned like a cone rather than a ball. Panicle hydrangeas have viable and infertile creamy-white flowers that occasionally become pink as they develop.
The four prominent types of hydrangeas that thrive in Virginia’s rich soil and mild winters and are heavily promoted there should be recognized and understood.
The most widely cultivated hydrangea, HYDRANGEA MACROPHYLLA, is useful for bringing a lot of early summer pink or blue color to gloomy or forested locations. Bigleaf, French, Mophead, Lacecap, Penny Mac, and Hortensia are examples of common names. In the morning light and afternoon shadow, everyone will flourish and thrive healthily. There are two varieties of macrophylla that are particularly unique: Endless Summer and Blushing Bride. They may blossom on “both on new season buds as well as on old buds (produced in the previous season). Because of this, they can flower for 10 to 12 weeks longer than typical Hydrangea macrophyllas on average. Depending on the soil’s pH and other factors, these skilled bloomers create stunning pink, grape, or blue blooms.
HYDRANGEA ARBORESCENCE: This species of hydrangea is a small to medium-sized shrub with huge serrated-edged leaves that blooms from May to July. It is also known as Smooth Hydrangea, Wild Hydrangea, or Sevenbark. The most well-known variation of this species, Anabelle, is also the hydrangea family member most resistant to freezing temperatures. Grandiflora is another well-liked cultivar with big, snowball-like blooms. This kind of hydrangea’s stem’s bark peels off in a number of tiny layers, revealing a distinctively colored layer underneath each one.
HYDRANGEA QUERCIFOLIA: This type, sometimes known as Oakleaf, thrives in Virginia even after years of drought because it can withstand hot summers and dry circumstances. From spring to summer, they produce large, spectacular blooms that usually become pinkish as they start to fade. They were given the name Oakleaf because no other hydrangea in the family produces any discernible fall foliage. In the summer, their huge, unique leaves are green, but in the fall, they turn into vivid hues of crimson, orange, yellow, and burgundy. The Snowflake, Harmony, Snow Queen, Alice, Sikes Dwarf, and Peewee types are typical and well-liked selections. Oakleaf hydrangeas typically reach heights of 6 to 8 feet. Sikes Dwarf is the most diminutive type, which makes it a wonderful option for tiny gardens.
PANICLE HYDRANGEA: This variety is the most tolerant of cold temperatures among all hydrangeas. To thrive, they require several hours of sunlight each day. Hydrangeas with panicles bloom in the middle of the summer and can reach heights of 10 to 15 feet. The only variety of hydrangea that can be shaped into a tree shape is this one. A cultivar known as Pee Gee is a particular favorite among many people who enjoy panicle hydrangeas. The term is derived from its scientific name, Paniculata Grandiflore, although “All panicle hydrangeas are now referred to as Pee Gee. Limelight is another popular variety of hydrangea that can be grown practically anywhere in the nation.
Like many other plants, hydrangeas should be grown in rich, loamy soil that is well-drained (dark, crumbly soil that is slightly sticky when moist). Plant them in the fall or in the early summer. Take into account these suggestions:
- In order to avoid having to clip hydrangeas repeatedly, plant them where they will have room to grow to their full size. (Hydrangeas often grow to a height of 4 feet by 4 feet.)
- Hydrangeas shouldn’t be planted too deeply. Plant at the same depth at which the hydrangea was potted.
- It’s crucial to have extra moisture during droughts in the first year or two after planting. However, exercise caution when watering, especially in clay soil. Despite having the Greek word for water in the first half of its name, hydrangeas are prone to root rot. Large leaves and a lack of flower buds are two signs of overwatering, which can also significantly hinder the bloom’s development. It is preferable to water lavishly less frequently than to do so excessively frequently.
- Hydrangeas should be transplanted in the late fall or winter when they are dormant and have all of their leaves fallen off.
- The majority of hydrangeas thrive in dappled shade. The panicle kinds are the outliers since they require more sun. However, keep in mind that hydrangeas normally do not thrive in close proximity to trees. Hydrangeas frequently don’t receive enough light directly under trees for them to flourish. Another issue is tree roots, which can take up a lot of the moisture and nutrients that hydrangeas require to survive from the soil.
White flowers cannot be altered, but pink or blue hydrangea blossoms can be made to look a certain way by adjusting the pH levels of the soil. It’s crucial to realize that soil pH has an impact on plant pigment, which in turn has an impact on flower color. Blooms on a plant in slightly acidic soil will be blue, according to the Virginia Cooperative Extension (soil pH of about 5.0 to 5.5). The hue of the bloom will be pink when the pH of the soil is greater than 6.0 to 6.5. Flower hues that fall somewhere between pink and blue are produced by soil pH levels between 5.6 and 5.9. The presence of aluminum in the soil is the cause of this phenomena. Simply explained, plants must not absorb metal from the soil for hydrangea blooms to be pink. Lime can be added to soil that naturally contains aluminum to help keep the metal away from the roots and to boost pH levels. Raising the pH will help prevent the bluing effect of aluminum out of the hydrangea’s system since hydrangeas absorb aluminum best at lower pH levels. The pH of the soil should be low in order to make the aluminum accessible to the plant. The pH of the soil tends to decrease when aluminum sulfate is added. Adding organic matter to the soil, such as coffee grinds, fruit and vegetable peels, and grass clippings, is another way to lower the pH. After being planted or transplanted, hydrangeas may even change color on their own as they adapt to their new surroundings.
The use of various fertilizers can also change the color of hydrangeas. A fertilizer with a lot of phosphorus can help the blooms stay pink or turn pink and keep aluminum away from the plant’s roots. To get a good blue hue, use a fertilizer that is heavy in potassium and low in phosphorus. Also keep in mind that you have the most control over the soil and blossom color when growing hydrangeas in pots.
Experienced gardeners have different preferences on the usage of fertilizer to improve the health of hydrangeas in addition to how it affects color. According to some, newly planted hydrangeas in loamy, rich soil might not require fertilizer the first year. Using chemical fertilizer with a gradual or fast release for shrubs and trees, treating older plants may be beneficial. Always follow the manufacturer’s instructions while applying. If you’d rather avoid using commercial fertilizer, think about using peat moss, compost, and sulfur in combination.
Pruning is another topic that may cause misunderstanding or disagreement among gardeners, much like fertilizer. If the plant is healthy and has enough room to grow, some experts disagree that any pruning of hydrangeas is essential. Pruning is necessary if the plant grows too big or becomes unruly, although not all varieties should be pruned at the same time. Those that continue to bloom “After they have completed flowering, old growth should be trimmed. Therefore, the majority of mophead hydrangeas “Pruning this late could accidentally remove the flowers from the following year because these plants set their bloom buds in late summer and early fall. Others, like as the Endless Summer variety, can be clipped before they awaken in the spring or when they are falling dormant in the fall and exhibit the extraordinary property of blooming on both old and new growth.
For flower beds, wooded areas, or flower pots, hydrangeas are a lovely option. With little time and effort, these fragrant, adaptable plants will repay you with large flowers year after year.