it's me , it's me in the same zone and far away country and the same hydrangea- Nikko Blue. Last weekend i uncovered my hydrangeas and they look terrible- ugly twigs look black dead but buds look OK, some rotten look tips and some tips look ready to flower, many, many new green things are coming up from the bottom of roots or lower buds of twigs I don't know.
I don't know does it mean my Nikko is alive or is it going to die latter on? the same thing with Endless Summers hydrangeas.

Can someone help us please how to protect our hydrangeas in zones 5/6.
I did put loads and loads of leafs to protect hydrangeas last beginning of November, leafs got too compacted holding water from melting snow and rain falls, some leafs started rotting, how to avoid this.

i have just one kind of leafs in the fall to protect my plants , Maple tree leafs. I know they are not good but Oaks are not in my area.

Need some protection for the next winter, something that will protect buds and twigs from freezing and also will let moisture go through .

We used a custom made 'rose cone' approach after tying up the canes. Our container had small air holes on the sides, not too many. Figured if this worked for protecting roses it should be fine for the hydrangeas. Will check again in a week or two and report findings. If this effort failed this time, thats it! They are getting replaced with All Summer Beauty! Grrrrr.

I have done nothing to protect my hydrangeas ever(Zone 5)and they come up with beautiful foliage but do not bloom at all. Any advice? If I fertilize, would it help? One I know is "Endless Summer" and don't know what the other 2 are. One quite large and one quite small. Any help is appreciated. Blessings, Margaret

I tried putting bags of leaves around my Endless Summers this year to see if I could get more of the old wood to survive the winter. I peeked the other day and the stems look good with lots of fat, green (flowering?) buds. In the past I have just applied a heavy layer of leaf mulch to protect the buds lower down on the stems. That works well, but I still lose everything else sticking out of the leaves/snow. I leave the mulch on pretty late in the spring to protect them since hydrangeas have a tendency to 'wake up' to early.

I make circles with chicken wire around each plant and fill them with straw. Seems to work for my Endless Summer and my oak leaf hydrangeas.

tedb_threecedarfarm , does straw get compacted, pushed down with the snow and/or rain. how do you put the straw; do you push it down hard or just loosely , do you have to add more later on.

I have 7 hydrangeas and seems to many cages to build, I guess I am in wrong place, but I like hydrangeas particularly blue ones.

I have a 5-year old Nikko Blue. It has bloomed for me every year except last year (the dreaded Easter freeze). I actually don't do anything to protect it. It is at the northeast corner of my front porch, so it gets some protection from its location but that is it. I have comtemplated using a chicken wire cage and straw or surrounding the plant with straw bales, but haven't done either. I was curious to see how it did after this past winter which was a typical winter except that the temps were consistently cold (but not bitterly cold) rather than the ups and downs we are prone to in Kansas. I just finished pruning Nikko last night and found that several canes (branches?) were "green" out to a foot or so, and I take this to be a positive sign. There is a lot of new growth at the base and from the lower portion of the old wood, so I am very hopeful I will have blooms.

ksflowergirl,
I just took the styrofoam box covers that we made for our Nikko Blue H. Success! Every thing has green buds clear up to the tip. At last! Hooray! :-)

Congrats on your success, gardenlady. You should have many beautiful blooms as a reward this summer. I am going to have to try the rose cone--that is a great idea.

Thanks ksflowergirl! I'm so pleased. And all we did was tie up the branches, and buy foam insulation from the hardware store and build a box to slip over each hydrangea. Punched a few holes for air circulation just like the rose cones you buy. All I know it worked, now wrapping with burlap or bubble wrap. :-)
Happy Gardening!
Pam

I learned from an old guy in town who grows gorgeous hydrangeas, in zone 5 don't uncover until May 1. Don't prune till June 1. You can't tell what's dead until then. Even with all that, there are good years and bad years for hydrangeas that bloom on old wood (Nikko). My Nikkos tanked last year. That's why you want reliable bloomers like All Summer Beauty, Endless Summer, Annabelle and Limelight. Let the divas sit the year out, you've still got blooms!
Margaret, fertilizer might help. Do they get any sun? My happy bloomers get about 5 hours of sun. Of course, they then need extra water so I have a drip hose threaded through them. If you prune before June 1 you might be cutting off parts that WOULD have given you blooms.

HAPPY SPRING HYDRANGEA LOVERS!
So glad to hear of all your overwintering successful results. Last season was the very first real great results I got from the o/wint'ng efforts I employed, following Hay-Seedman's tutorial.
I invested on better Winter coats, for all my marginally -bloom tender Hs this past Winter ... so far so good as I peeked on some. I'm just now slowly undressing them by layers. Thanks for helping boost my confidence on completely removing all protection at this time. Last year's 2weeks of late frost makes me cautious about being too eager to unwrap - patience paid off. But this Spring looks like she is on her way, 'tho here in our Z5a Mom's Day week-end is the rule of thumb.
I gathered & tied all woods, wire-corralled wrapped with land-escaping fab (barrier from gusty winds) & dumped dried leaves/pine needles in cages; used bagged leaves on 17y/o Nikko (wrapped with burlap). Quite a messy clean-up :(( - Pam -I might try your 'foam insulation' wrap for the '08-'09 winter. On the ESs I decided to save all the old woods - used the flatboard method ... indeed it worked so far no dead old woods! My problem is not enough sun in their site to bear the gorgeous blooms - 'may have to be relocate ... when is a good time, anyone? Greatly appreciate! :-)))
Ditas

Hi Nude gardener - Just like Tedb I made cages for 9 bloomtender Hs and used the flatboard (suggested by a Z5 Canadian Nikko lover), for the ESs & Little Elf but our Winters are harsher teamed up with gusty winds. I guess all I can say is indeed "No pain-no gain". I had all Winter to recover from the 'pains' with hopes of rewards!

Last Fall the fabric shop I go to, had a great sale on good/tighter-weave burlaps better than the gardenshop type & cost me less. My Nikko is 4.5ft tall &6-7ft-wide, I danced around her with bedsheeting strips to bundle her woods, before wrapping with the burlap; wire-corralled her & distributed bags of dry leaves ( Hay Seedman style, but I used kitchen-size plastic bags) inside the corral & gave her a well fitted, rose-cone top hat ... a gorgeous snowlady she was! I've just removed her top hat & all the bags of leaves around her - took a peek ... looked promising like Pam's (Gardenlady 48).

Depending on the size of your Nikko, the flat-board protection method might be your answer!
Best of luck!
D

ditas, thank you very much for the information. i will copy you this coming winter, i guess i will be busy:-)

G'morning, 'tis me again reporting on tender-bloomer survivors ... finally completely undressed old Nikko, 5 serratas & Lil Elf ... I'm happy to report that all the over-wintering efforts paid off wonderfully in varied degrees of enthusiasm. I'm looking forward to an even more flowerful season, barring another late freeze ala '07! In MHO as long as the canes are dark brown or even black, there is hope - I found a couple of whitish canes on 2 of my serratas, those were dead as they snapped easily the dark ones are pliable. Certainly none of mine are gorgeous looking at this point but the fattening leafbuds foretell budding beauties! Old leaves are still hanging on, I left them alone for added protection but trimmed off all dried up blooms.

I invested on a Pink Diamond H late last fall, sunk her, double potted & mulched over with briquettes, in a hole I prep'd at the time for another serrata. I worried for a while but now that she is in a sunny site I intended for her, tiny green buds are starting to form & burst, hurray with fingers crossed still! I guess arborescens are quite hardy even left in pots outdoors - all other arborescens I have are fast leafing out & H Petiolaris is the most enthusiastic!

Best wishes to all of us in this marginal zones - I waited a bit longer to undress Nikko, last year & was rewarded. This time I couldn't resist after reading from many in similar zones - I do have burlap covers in readiness for any whims of Mama nature!

i am in zone 6 and i do not do anything special to overwinter my hydrangeas. they bloom every year. perhaps i should try protecting them in hopes of getting more blooms??

I've only been overwintering my plants in mounds under bags of leaves for the past couple of years.

Every year is a little bit different, but I'm getting pretty good at resisting the temptation to uncover the plants when we go through a long period of very warm days like we've been enjoying for most of April. The forecast low for two nights coming up is 34 degrees. I've learned, too, over the years, that the actual low overnight can be as much as 5 degrees off the forecast low that you see before you go to bed.

Last year I started uncovering mine about April 25. The year before it was sometime in May. I'm going to be watching the weather closely for the next few days and I expect I'll do something soon. I usually start by taking a few bags off at a time. We're going to be getting as much as an inch of rain tomorrow. Cold, cloudy and rain. Perfect coming out weather if you're a Hydrangea.

Hay

Hi Hay - so glad to see your post finally!!!!!

Indeed my husband said I'm a glut for punishment! For not heeding to our rule of thumb - 'coming-out' party in May! For not resisting the itch and temptation to party sooner, I've been running out there to burlap-cover & save all of my bloom-tenders' old cane survivors (leafing-out wonderfully)! Serves me right - 'should never demean Mama Nature! ... a couple more nites of chill factor in mid20s/low 30s & it'll be May! Hay, I did take your advice of dropping my divas' wraps around their feet for readiness. Another mistake I did (save for old Nikko's) was to remove their cages ... 'would have save me the trouble of sashing their wraps ... winds are quite wicked here! :-(((

Karen you're wise to listen to your old, hydrangea, guy friend!!!

BTW, Hay - if I want to keep Nikko a bit easier to deal with, would pruning her top not hurt her productivity, since the lower half of all her old canes are the most enthusiastically leafing-out at this point? TIA!!!
D

Well, up here in VT it is a bit early to say although we did have some warm weather for a week and now it is cool and going down to 24F tonight. This year I did not overwinter (cover) my Nikko's or experiment with the ES. So everything had a good winter blast of cold, though covered in snow for most of the cold weather. Results:

My 2 old big Nikko's are sticks devoid of any buds or growth. Last year I corraled them but only got lots of leaves and zero flowers.

My 12 ES are all beginning to leaf out even on sticks that appear to be dead as a doornail. Pretty robust plants for zone 4.

I have 3 younger Nikko's which now are in their 3rd spring
here. And I did not protect them as an experiment. Last year I flatboxed protected 2 of the 3 with good results. The other Nikko I did not protect and it also had flowers but a bit later than the protected 2. That was a surprise.

Right now the 3 Nikko's are looking just like the ES in leaf development. I am somewhat inclined to think these 3 Nikko's have some ES genes but I'll wait until they flower to be sure.

Hi Jack - So glad to see your post finally, 'tho I'm certain it is still quite cold where you are! Boy, you're brave with your experimentation ... will look forward to your 'scientific' findings!!! :-)

The extent of my experimentations are: 1) in the mulching inside the cages I created for my bloom-tenders - pine needles vs dried whole leaves & finely mulched leaves 2) The wind barrier wraps I used around the cages( black landscaping fab vs thin clear plastic sheets 3) Wire cages vs flat boad w/ leaf mulch over.

Findings: Spring clean up: leaf mulch = matted down & messy. Pine needles is my choice.
Cage wrap: I'll go with the landscaping fab - initially $$$ but will IMO, last longer/easier to fold & store. Breathing is no problem since tops are open (I used burlap blanket for the tips of canes.

Only old Nikko was better protected ala Hayseedman style!

Really eager to read your results!!! :-)

Update: It's 4-29....removed my custom built 'insulation boxes' a week ago. Sp fare all buds appear to be alive. Checking every couple of days for the buds opening. The method was extremely EASY! Just tye up plant, place insulation box oever plant, secure in place. NO leaves, no wrapping of any kind. Simple. I will post pictures later this season with flowering buds.
Happy Gardening~Pam

Hi Pam - 'will be looking forward to see pics of your 'insulation box' - 'eagerly welcome any method to ease the painful chore of putting our babes to bed for Winter!!!

Did you escape these few dangerously, sub-freezing overnite temps, where you are? I had to run out 4 consecutive evenings to cover up 12 of mine, finally tonite will be in the 40s - Hurray!

TIA!

TIA,
I live in central Illinois. They did forcast scattered frost in our area one night....so out came the 'insulation boxes' again. They were very easy to re-apply. We left 3 sides hinged with zip-ties so they were easy to unfold. Covered up my tree peoney and my red horse chestnut tree because I didn't want to loose those beautiful blooms. And just as I speculated.....NO FROST! That's a good thing, but covered things for nothing. Oh well....Yes, I will post some pictures in the near future.
Happy Gardening~
Pam

Hi again Pam - I'm getting curiouser & curiouser about your protective boxes - can't wait to see them even if we're still months away ... always good to learn of new, easier & effective over-wintering methods!

Better safe than sorry, right?! I did not cover my 5 paniculata bushes & Kyushu tree as I figured, if the 3 older ones survived the 2wks of April '07 deep freeze & flowered just profusely/beautifully all the same the 2 new ones would too!

An ES enthusiast named Phil from ME ( in last year's Hayseedman's Overwintering thread) shared his very creative style too, using PVC tubings and insulating paper. He couldn't post his pics so I emailed him directly and very kindly responded with his quite instructive & detailed photos!!! His gorgeous ES, more than 20 of them, if memory serves me, were planted in the foundation, garden strips around his house. I went back to his Email but the photos were no longer there, too bad! :-( I even teased him that his creative method should make for a good PVC tubing commercial & award him bonuses for his ingenuity!!! I hope we see his post again & perhaps get him to post his photos again!

ditas,
I was going to email you directly but it was N/A. I saw that your birthday is the same as mine!!! That's neat.
Rather than pull the boxes out again and assemble, I will just tell you they are simply made to the dimension of the plant using 1/2" insulation from Home Depot. Just measure and cut. Then assemble with zip ties along the sides a few times down the sides to make hinges. Then cut your top to fit. The holes punched on the sides allows ventilation, and you can add a few to the top for good measure. Before slipping them over the plants I tied them up. I realize pink insulation isn't the best for the winter landscape so we covered the fronts facing the road with huge black plastic garbage bags...then you can place a few rocks on top for anchor or put a tie-down strap across the 2 of them attached to hooks in the ground. I like this idea because there are no leaves to mess with and when finished they remove easily and fold up for storage. :-)
Pam

Hi Pam - Sorry it took so long for me to check back on this post - I figured there's plenty of time, right?! I got busy with flats & flats of annuals, planting & relocating H bushes etc!

I have just moved MyM (Purple Tiers) to my front (long & wide) foundation bed & will have to resort to cages or your insulation board method ... it does look odd without those old generic, evergreen bushes we pulled out a few years back. Last Winter I decided to try the flat board method suggested by Maria of Ont. & to simulate snow covered bushes, I piled snow in mounds, over (LOL) The birdbath & shepherd's hook with bird house helped ... for those brown Winters ,,, perhaps I'll pick up some short, fake Christmas trees & stake them down there just for looks ... oh, who cares!!! LOL :-)))