I just trim off the obviously dead stuff at the top and then let Annabelle do her thing. She always responds with lots of BIG blooms.

Kate

Hello lalala,
Any living stems will continue their growth this year, extending from existing wood. You may also see new shoots coming from the ground. If you are unsure whether a particular stem is alive, make a small scratch/nick in an inconspicuous spot with a fingernail or pair of snips and look for green.

G'morning - Mine planted in '08 was not pruned in Spring of '09 as posted above, new shoots came up & old wood went on w/ life as usual. My problem was, Anna Belle grew so tall nearly 5' - to solve flopping w/ all her huge blooms after rains, I installed a wire fencing.

This early Spring I decided to chop her down to 8"-10" to see if she'll grow a bit closer to the ground & rounder, as all the others I see around here. I'm leaving the wire cage, just in case she turns out to be simply a tall gal!

Happy Spring!

When the plant puts out new growth it tends to be tender green canes that will just have leaves on them. The second year those green canes will become woody-they are your "new wood." They are the canes that will bear the flower heads.

When you look at your hydrangeas, a live branch will have a little pointed growth at the end of each one. On some plants it's kinda fuzzy. You never want to cut those off because that's where your blooms are going to form. Ditas, you may not get any blooms this year, since you cut everything, but give it plenty of water and fertilizer and it should recover and bloom next year.

You should never prune your hydrangeas until the plant starts to leaf out. That way it's easy to tell which branches are alive and which are dead. Only take off the dead ones. If your plant is just too large for the site it's planted in, and you don't mind losing the flowers, you can always take off the ends of branches that are too long. Or you can wait til it blooms and then prune those branches and take the blooms inside.

Cheryl

Cheryl, are you sure that you cannot prune Annabelle or Paniculatas hard? I pruned them pretty hard last year and they still bloomed their heads off! LOL! I agree that for macrophyllas, you should not prune them until you are sure that the canes are totally dead, but for Annabelle and paniculatas, they really bloom on new growth anyway, so I don't think that hard pruning will hurt the blooming at all.

Thanks for allaying my fears Ostrich ... my severely chopped-down Annie is happily leafing out on all her 10" old canes plus she's shooting new ones up nicely, as well!!! I'm hoping for her to look like yours ... shorter & rounder!!! LOL

Cheryl - my understanding is *the do not prune* rule applies only on Hs that bloom only on old woods ... the fat node buds on old woods, hold the next season's blooms, right?