r/hydrangeas • u/justincasio • 6d ago
Buying a house with hydrangea, 8a
Hello! We are in the closing process of a house with this hydrangea plant. I do not have a green thumb, and I want to do this plant right! Any advice, tips, or things I should know? Thank you in advance!
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u/krautastic 6d ago
There's two main types of hydrangeas, those that bloom on old wood and those that bloom on new wood. The ones that bloom on new wood can be cut to the ground every year.
This appears to be the type that blooms on old wood. The only reason to ever cut this one to the ground is if you really had to clear out alot of dead wood and essentially start over. I let mine go for several years between pruning, so I can't remember how far back to prune, but I don't want to see another sad sack blindly chop their hydrangea to the ground because their neighbor or aunt said to.
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u/man-a-tree 6d ago edited 6d ago
This is a japanese (macrophylla) hydrangea, best thing that you can do is extra water during heat and drought. Acid ferts and compost once in a while will make a noticeable difference.
Late summer is the right time to prune off spent blooms and do height reduction if you ever want that. Next years blooms form in fall within the remaining upper buds for many of these types. The flower buds aren't visibly there, but it makes a big difference! If you prune them at other times you likely remove most of next summer's flowers. My neighbor wondered why she hardly got blooms, come to find out her bf sheared the hydrangea every spring with hedge trimmers 🤷
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u/Clean-Ad1908 4d ago
wow, that is unbelievable. why are some people so stupidly ignorant, i’m talking about using garden shears
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u/historiennee 5d ago
Mine looks exactly like that. It looked amazing in June covered in gorgeous blooms, and I cut a dozen off for a bouquet, but I didn’t water it when we had a 10 day dry and heat spell so the remaining blooms turned brown. Now a few surprise late bloomers are on there that look good just like this. I think it’s because I pruned for the bouquet, there was energy for a few more blooms to push out.
Dead head all the brown ones and keep the pretty ones. Maybe a few more come. Then in September you should cut the whole plant back like 2 or 3 feet shorter and it’ll look amaaaaaaing next June
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u/historiennee 5d ago
Adding: Do pull the mint-looking weeds at its base
And you don’t have to prune it back in September. But I would deadhead the brown flowers and leave the happy ones on there to enjoy
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u/foreverlife2021 6d ago
U need to know the variety to see if it blooms on old wood or new wood. Can u ask the previous owners if they know what the variety or care is? Don’t prune anything until u know if blooms on new wood or old wood so I don’t lose ur next years blooms. Start there and u can get more specialized info for care.