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How long will it take for my hydrangeas to come back?
from improper pruning?
I have 2 hydrangeas (mophead) in different areas of our yard. One was there when we moved in and it has not bloomed once in 7.5 years. The other I planted and it looked beautiful every single year until this year and now it only has 1 bloom.
I've tried fertilizing it, using Miracle Grow, using acid... I always clean out dead branches and cut off dead blooms (and I dont even cut them down that far...) I water it to death and dont think they get too much sun.
I think it comes down to pruning and every single year I google it and run into this site: www.hydrangeashydrangeas.com. I read the instructions thoroughly. Some years i've left them go and not cut them back at all. Some years cut them down to the ground.
Every single year when they start growing in the spring, they look like this:
which that website says is frost damage? We live in zone 6 and dont see many days in the single digits or below. One is along a fence and one is alongside of our house in between the house and a huge arbivatae so I feel like they are fairly protected by wind and whatnot... We always leave our mulch down after the season so the base of the plant is probably under at least 5" of mulch at any given time...
What kills me is that my neighbor has a mophead variety literally 5' away from one of mine over a fence, and she never cuts hers down or prunes it or cuts dead blooms off and it looks beautiful every single year. It also never seems to grow bigger and mine get freaking humongous, at least twice the size of hers, so I dont know what's up with that...
So anyway, I dont know what to do with these plants... I think this year i'm not going to do anything with them at all and hope that they come back next year and bloom but i've about given up hope for the one that hasn't bloomed in 7.5years...
Any thoughts?? Or anything different from what i've read on that specific website?
Re: How long will it take for my hydrangeas to come back?
I have gorgeous hydrangeas. I've never done a thing to them. I don't think they like being cut back. I cut one back at my old house, and it didn't bloom again for years. Sometimes I pull off the dead crunchy flowers, but I do nothing else.
STOP fertilizing them. Step away from the Miracle Grow.
Is that a picture of your plant? Looks like the lawn is also fertilized regularly?
My guess is that your plant is ODing on Nitrogen. Nitrogen forces green growth- it makes the leaves huge and the plant huge. Right now, it is putting everything it has into artifically accellerated foliar growth.
You plant's on speed.
perhaps you are prunning too late. The bud is on the new growth. The flower blooms on muture growth. if you want to cut it back, prune right after it blooms.
That is not my actual plant, it is from the hydrangea website that I reference.
I have not used acid or Miracle Grow on any of my plants (including my hydrangeas) in 2 years but we do regularly fertilize our lawn.
Can you take a picture of your hydrangea and post it here, please? ~NB~ is actually a Horticulturist and could probably give more insight if she had a picture of your actual plant.