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Hydrangea Care

It is important to get to know the ground rules for pruning Hydrangeas. Otherwise, you could lose all flowers on your plant with a wrong clip. Follow these directions for pruning:

• French Hydrangea. You need to find the flower buds first. Once you know what they look like, pruning is easy. Go to the top of a stalk on the "outside" of the Hydrangea because eveerything is easily visible there. DO NOT cut the faded flowers from the plant. Leave them there to protect the flower buds immediately below. Go below the old flower for a distance of 3 to 6 inches. In those few inches, you will find the uppermost flower bud. Take your pruning shears and cut a quarter-inch above that bud, slanting the cut so the "high" side of the cut is just above the flower bud. By pruning, you allow optimum sunlight to penetrate the Hydrangea and promote the development of new canes rising from the crown of the shrub.
• PeeGee Hydrangea. Prune the canes almost to the ground when forsythia has been flowering for two weeks. This is a safe time to prune. Go down the first stalk (cane) to 4 or 5 inches above the ground and look ffor a flower bud projecting off the cane in this area. Prune a quarter-inch above the flower bud, but sdlant your cut so that the high side of the cut is just above the flower bud. If you don't find any flower buds near the base of the stalk, cut that stalk all the way to the ground. This is called a "blind shoot" m, meaning no flower buds happened on that stalk due to inadequate sunlight the prior autumn.

Reminders

• Through late spring and summer, check foliage periodically for signs of above-normal insect damage, mostly from spider mites and aphids.
• Check for botrytis blight (ugly blotches on foliage).
• Leave dried flowers (lacecaps or mopheads) on the Hydrangea to prevent winter kill from destroying flower buds formed in October. When pruning withered flowers in the Spring, store them in a plastic trash can liner. In December when you put up Holiday decorations the dried Hydrangea flowes can e placed arond to provide a "Victorina look" for the holidays.

Annabell Hydrangea


Hydrangea Macrophyllum

Lace Cap Hydrangea

Oak Leaf Hydrangea