Hydrangea Pruning and Care

    I have a basic rule when it comes to pruning Hydrangeas, "DON'T".  Unless its the late flowering Hydrangea Paniculata or "PeeGee" or similar varieties, which I will prune just as the buds start to open up in the spring. Of the PeeGee Varieties I prune back my 'Limelight' ,'Tardiva' and 'kyushu' pretty hard and they respond well to it. I have a 30+ year old  Pee Gee 'Grandiflora' which I have used as the center piece for my garden and I prune it back hard every year.

     The basic Hydrangea Macrophylla, including Big Leaf, Lace Cap (personal favorite) or Mop Head should be left alone. "Flowering occurs on previous years growth". This also happens with a lot of other types of shrubs which at a later date I will mention.  So if you pruned these plants late in the previous year do not expect a lot of flowers or if any for that matter.  You can prune off just the old dried flower heads but leave it at that, which is what I do with my Oak Leaf Hydrangeas.

I will further be discussing in an upcoming blog post how to easily propagate these many varieties.

Below is a properly pruned big leaf Hydrangea with all dead wood cut out as well as old flower heads making it look nice and tidy.

If you enjoy blue flowers on your Hydrangea you can add some aluminum sulfate which can be bought in most garden centers.  Just add that into the soil which I have done this past week.