Thanks for the info....wow, I only keep 3-5 canes and cut everything else at the base? Why? I like to understand the why, because then I can understand the plant better. Will the smaller canes I have now not be as productive next year, so it's better to have new growth from the bottom? I'm probably very wrong here! Or to stimulate the plant? Another guess!

I appreciate your input, thank you.

Did you say you want to establish upright structure?
Those 3-5 will be your MAIN branches for the years to come. Everything new coming from the base in a spring will be not strong enough to hold the flowers and you'll be back to square one with flopping issue if you leave them.
Work on a structure for the next 2-3 years by adding 1-2 strongest and the most upright of the new canes to those initial 3-5 and in a 3-4 years you'll have a nicely structured more or less upright plant.

Pruning will result in larger flowers especially if the number of branches is reduced. I.e. fewer flowers means bigger flowers. In addition to what ego45 says about pruning, you can also prune based on overall form and shape. This type of pruning is easier, at least for me, when they have leaves (so now) as opposed to early spring before they bud out. As ego45 mentions, the structure branches get stronger over time. Young branches are more floppy.

I don't cut my flowers so can't respond to that (my cats eat anything I bring inside so don't cut any plants for that matter).

Thank you both for responding. Yes, I would like to establish upright structure if I can. The image below, just from a month or two ago now looks very different, as the canes grew larger and completely arched to all sides.

I think I understand now, but I need to write it myself. Forgive me for taking a little time to get it. I think the point is to select the strongest canes now. Cut everything at the base. Next year, do the same thing.....select the strongest canes at that time, cut weaker canes at the base. The following year repeat the same thing.

silvergold, very good point about the leaves, thank you. And, I assume I would cut just above a leaf?

Am I on the right track?

Here is a link that might be useful: Limelight-now, totally flopped over (arched!)

I meant to say in the second paragraph, cut everything "else" at the base, after I've chosen those 3-5 strongest canes.

I have a question after reading this and seeing the limelight photo tivoli rose posted. The photo posted shows a lovely limelight with possibly as many as 8 or 9 very strong canes. Why limit the number of canes you keep to only 3 or 5? If the canes are good and strong, why would you not keep more than 3-5???? Thanks in advance.

Huh?.....I wouldn't describe that Limelight as "floppy" at all compared to some other paniculatas. It seems to have the characteristic upright growth that Limelight is known for. I am not sure what look you're going for, but I don't think that you are going to get much more upright than that. Will pruning give the plant better form? Probably, and by virtue of cutting the small / weak stems, you will get more strong stout long stems but they in turn will have larger heavier blooms, so I don't know how much more upright it will get than it already is....yg

Tivoli, yes, that's correct.
In your particular case, two months ago you had several upright growing canes. If at that time you would of chose one strong central leader plus few others growing at the angles, staked them and let them harden in such position, upcoming spring you would of have already basis for the vase shaped upright shrub. Then you'd decide at what height you would like to see a flowers (with provisions for the arching effect, of course) and by selective pruning could create either large mass of flowers at the same height or staggered effect for the fullness.
My personal prefernce is to prune in a spring as soon as I see buds forming because in this case I clearly see the directions where buds pointing and also choose the place of cut depending on number of buds formed in that particular place of the branch. In some places you'll see a single bud, in some 4-5 and every one of them will produce new young branch that in turn will produce a terminal flower. Your choice will be based on effect you'd like to create.

madcapper, yes, you could keep as many as you wish to, but young plant has only so much energy and it's better to let it work just on a limited number of canes (that in a future become a main trunks) than on too many at the same time. In a next 3 years it will produce new growth from the base every spring and you'll have a plenty to choose from to work with. Gradually new growth from the base will be weaker and weaker by the year and eventually it will stop producing new growth from the base all together and concentrate its energy on a top growth only.
If you have a chance, look at paniculatas grown as a tree form, where only one strong leader was left and everything else was pruned off and you'll see what I mean.

On the question of number of branches, I do not reduce mine to just a few unless I am going for a tree shape. I more or less shape mine I would, as yellowgirl mentions, cut out some of the weaker small branches - the larger branches will get stronger over time. As yellowgirl mentions, though, I don't think yours is particularly floppy - seems upright to me. Just a young shrub that needs will get better over time.

Oh my - lol. I just reread my post and my grammer, english was awful. Can tell I edited it before I posted. I guess what I was trying to say is, like many things, you will get different opinions on how best to prune. I would personally concentrate on removal of weak branches and overall shape. I think the rest will take care of itself over time. I'm not as scientific about pruning as ego45 - but that is OK !!

yellowgirl, as I said in the link and in the text, that image was taken at least a month ago, and now they are totally flopped, I won't even use the word arched, over. I mean totally flopped. Thus, my questions...

thanks very much for the information, I greatly appreciate it, it's so helpful, as I said, to understand the "why"!

I understand what ego45 has explained for pruning and shaping the form of the bush shown in the photo.

I just purchased a Limelight and planted it yesterday. Mine is quite small and appears to have been pruned last spring or previous fall at the nursery. All the stems coming from the roots are forked, with two or more branches going on upward. Probably at least 8 forks above roots. The forks are pretty short, 3-5 inches above the ground then newer sprouts growing out. There are some small twigs but most of the leaves are at the sprout ends. No middle growth of leaves, probably because plants were crowded. Flowers are pretty large, look like they were very nice before starting to dry out. Plant was on sale, so I thought I would try it.

My question is should I do anything about pruning bush this year beyond removing flowers when they finish drying? Should I expect any new sprouts next spring that might not be forked? I am afraid if I leave stems as they are, it will be a built in weakness further into the life of plant. That forks might be easily broken or split off in wind or winter snows is my main concern, especially as the sticks thicken with age. Thicker sticks would be a more serious injury in older bush.

I figure plant has about six weeks before losing leaves, but roots will keep growing for another month after, maybe until Dec. Our ground usually freezes late. Extra time would allow plant to do some things to help itself if pruned. However plant is newly planted, pruning too much could be more shock than it can handle, so waiting would be more helpful, safer.

Thank you, this thread has been quite interesting. I am pretty new at hydrangeas, so forum is good reading.

Don't prune it now, you don't want to encourage new growth so late in a season.
Let it be and grow the roots.
In a spring it will produce new stems from the base and you'll be working with them AND existing one.
Those 'forks' you are refering to were intentionally made by growers to promote visual bushiness/branching, but have nothing to do with a structural thing we were talking about.
Good luck.

Hi there. I was looking at my response above and it actually is a bit misleading. The only paniculata I pruned during the growing season was Preacox (which blooms on old wood so I have to) and White Moth (which blooms ver early). I was thinking more of them when I said to prune during the growing season. For the most part, I do prune in spring.

I thought it would be interesting to see what the 'experts' say about pruning. Dirr doesn't have much to say in his book , except to remove old flowers, improve structure and open the plant. He also says not to prune to stubs but instead improve the 'framework'.

Toni Lawson-Hall is a bit different. She indicates that not pruning at all is better than bad pruning...they will grow and flower if not pruned at all. She offers two options for pruning paniculata. First, to prune the previous years wood to leave only two buds on the stem. (I could never really figure out what was previous year and what was older.....if that is really what she means. Plus I have too many hydrangea to spend that much time counting buds.) She does refer to removing an entire branch if needed to control size. (The fewer the number of shoots, the larger the flower size.) She mentions that some people refer to this method of pruning as 'docking a dog's tail' and prefer the alternative method which is no pruning at all. In her book she shows examples of both.

And the link below provides a third method. Probably closest to my own. See method 2....

Here is a link that might be useful: Pruning hydrangeas

"First, to prune the previous years wood to leave only two buds on the stem. (I could never really figure out what was previous year and what was older....."

She is refering to spring pruning and 'older' wood is the one that is older than 1 year old . 'Previous year' is a 1 y.o. wood.
When she said 'two buds on a [previous year] stem' she definitely meant to say 'two SETS of buds on a stem' and that is the right approach if you want to develop strongly branched and well shaped plant. I usualy leave 2 to 3 sets of buds.
Method #2 has its own merits. If one growing paniculatas as a shrub (not a tree) in NOT constrained places where natural/wild look is prefered, then I have no objections.
However, if we are talking about gardens with more or less limited space, as most of the people have novadays, sooner or later it has to be pruned and in my opinion this shrub if shaped at young age will present much less challenge later when you'll have to deal with its loopsideness, leaning, height, width and all other related issues.

Yeah - I think the main problem I have with her description is the inclusion of 'previous year's growth'. Thanks for the further explanatin.

Regarding method 2, it is open description - just not as specific. I.e. not counting buds. 'It is suggested that one trim out crossing branches and those that do not contribute to an attractive form whenever necessry' I do follow this method and countrol size as well as shape. Reference to form means no lopsized or leaning shrubs shrub and I do remove growth to control size. With the exception of my Tardiva (lol!) I have no problems - and I think that is a different matter!!

So, just I guess there are many methods of doing the same thing. You find the same thing on the rose forum - debates over mulch, pruning, etc...

Please see the images I just took this morning. Please set the size to large or original, just under the image. Then, go to "next", upper right corner, to see three more images.

I'm going to intently read what is above this post now! Just thought I'd put these in to more clearly illustrate what I was talking about.

Thanks again.

Here is a link that might be useful: First of FOUR images

Hi tivoli. There is lots to read for sure. When I look at your pictures though, I mostly see a young shrub that, although it will benifit from pruning each year, is mostly young new growth. I think time will take care of some of it as the shrub gets older.

Here are a couple of other views on pruning...

From http://counties.cce.cornell.edu/suffolk/grownet/tree-shrub-maintenance/hydrang.html:
(Annual corrective pruning of vigorous shoots  a good method to control size if you donÂt use the 2 bud method)Â"This is the most commonly planted hydrangea because of its massive displays of large white flowers in mid- to late-summer. They gradually turn to pink and remain on the plant in a semi-dried condition long after the leaves have fallen. Pruning involves the removal of dead flowers, if unattractive, and annual corrective pruning of vigorous shoots. Thin and/or cut back the previous season's growth in late winter or early spring, since flower clusters occur on newly developing branches. Without regular pruning, this hydrangea can rapidly become quite overgrown and out of scale in the landscape. It can, however, be developed into a single or multi-stemmed tree form."

And from http://www.agnr.umd.edu/users/cmrec/art4.htm:
It refers to the pruning method used by ego...and I think is a better description that the Toni Lawson-Hall one. Also, again, the removal of whole branches to control size if needed. 'Cut the wood of H. paniculata back to two buds at the base of each stem in late winter. New shoots, bearing large paniculate blooms will result. Sometimes whole branches may be removed to reduce the size of the shrub. The fewer the number of branches on the shrub, the larger the panicles.'

And another from the US arboretumÂ.http://www.usna.usda.gov/Gardens/faqs/hydrangeafaq2.html:
They refer to removal of 1/3 of oldest stemsÂ.a method I use with viburnum and dogwood.
Established bigleaf, panicle, oakleaf and smooth hydrangea plants can often benefit from regular pruning. Removing about one-third of the oldest stems each year will result in a fuller, healthier plant. This type of pruning is easiest to do in winter, since the absence of leaves makes it easier to see and reach inside plants.

I think if you do a search you will find even more. However, will simply get better as it gets older and the older stems get stronger. I think pruning will help develop a good shape and control size and keep it from being overgrown in the center. Good luck!

Last year there were some excellent comments about pruning PeeGee Hydrangas. I have a very specific question on this topic: I have not done much pruning and I have 3 new LimeLight Hydrangas planted last fall. I understand I need to prune to reserve 3-5 main strong stems that will from the basic structure of the tree in the future. But each stem ends in a flower. If I clip the flower off of a stem that I want to preserve, won't it cause that stem to branch off where I clipped it? And if you cut your PeeGee flowers, are you constantly creating further branching?

Hi shadyglen. Pruing to preserve 3-5 strong stems for a young plant, or to thin for an older plant would mean removing a branch or a section where it branches out (if that makes sense). You are correct that clipping the end of a stem will usually result in branching but if you also remove branches down to a main branch it should balance out. Hope that made sense!!

I have two limelight hydrangeas that are in their third summer. I haven't really pruned them much, I just cut back the larger one a bit this spring b/c the branches were way too long and tall. Now they have both bloomed, and I see that I should have cut them back more in the spring. The blooms have mostly drooped, almost to the ground, after several heavy rains. Even the thicker branches are all bending towards the ground. Can/should I prune this now? Will it bloom more this year from the areas that I cut back? The first blooms just really came out fully in the past 2 weeks. Thanks.

Here is a link that might be useful: drooping limelight

When is the best time to prune limelight hydrangea tree?

nts22000, please start a new post with your question, you'll get better results.

One of my 100+ Limelights

l prune in winter and very early spring. The harder you prune the flowers may be delayed. This plant is about 9 feet high and 12 feet across. Pruned hard.

(took a lot of length off stems) I always prune off weak and crossing stems and limb up over time, but more stems always come back.

I am going to read all the informaiton on pruning because I am unsure of how to prune hydrangea. I do want stronger stems but sometimes I like the smaller blooms to dry for arrangemants. My limelight has a few stems really straight but the bottom has weaker stems with smaller blooms.

I think to get what you are looking for is to cut completely off to the main stem all weaker stems this late fall, winter or very early spring (before new growth). Do not prune your shrub too much taking off only about a 1/4 off. Don't take off many other branches. This will produce smaller blooms. Another way to get smaller blooms would be to prune the ends of the new growth early May and instead of getting one very long heavy stem you will get three stems wherever you prune. You can experiment with the timing of this on part of the shrub. I prune the beginning of June in my area to get blooms in September and October but I do it only to 1/3 of some shrub and some I do it to the whole shrub and some I leave alone. That way I get staggered bloom times and different sized blooms.

Thanks for the great ideas on pruning.I am going to take some notes or I will never remember. Having stagered blooms would be great.

Remember that Paniculatas bloom on new growth. This is on of my shrubs with large and small blooms, early and later blooms

I sure like the combination of big and small blooms!

HELP. I live in zone 3 and have been growing Limelight hydrangeas for 10+ years and realize I don't know anything about them. They have always had loads of blooms and my husband enjoys looking at the dried blooms over winter. They are along the eastern side of the house along a row of windows.Problem is that they had reached about 10' tall and I couldn't see out the windows, so I convinced my husband to let me cut them back this early spring. Well, that's my problem because I didn't know what I was doing. I cut them down to about 5' (a compromise), but I think I didn't prune them early enough as it is now July and there is no sign of any flowers. Also, they are about eight' tall again. I read on a website that new growth should come from the base. Almost none of my new growth is from the base. It is off of old wood. Why is this happening and is it a problem? I also read that I should cut off the old wood, but it seems that if I do this there won't be anything for new growth to grow on. I'm not sure what I should be asking. I've also read that some people recommend cutting them to the ground each year. Since I don't know what I'm doing, that feels too drastic to me. I would like to have bushy plants about 5" tall. How low should I prune them? Also, if they aren't going to get any flowers this year, can I go ahead and prune them now? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

tomanddonnie

If you want 5' tall plants, I think you are out of luck. You can most likely prune them every year down to 2'-3' to keep them somewhat shorter but I find that they are fast growers and will get back much of that size annually.

Whatever you were reading that said they would send out new growth from the base not off of old wood, I would question their expertise based on my experience. What you observed is totally normal IME.

I just saw a bunch of Limelights here in zone 5 today, and they don't all even have buds, so you are jumping the gun I think. The Quickfire are blooming, the Vanilla Strawberry had buds and Pinky Winky had tight buds just starting, but the Limelights had few if any buds yet, so in zone 3 I would give it 3 or 4 weeks before worrying about no blooms. I think they will bloom just fine.

If you read a bit down in this blog post from Detroit area landscape designer Deborah Silver, she has some fairly detailed photos and descriptions of how she prunes Limelight. You can do the pruning if you have a snowless time in winter or in really early spring before they start pushing buds. I would wait and not try to do it this summer since they will start trying to regrow now, and that would sort of defeat the purpose of making them shorter next year on top of pruning off any possible blooms for this year.

You might want to start your own thread if you have future questions. That way you will get notified if your questions is answered. At the top of the page, click on the "Hydrangeas" link in green to get to the main hydrangeas forum page, and there is a text box there to start a new thread.

PS - If you want a smaller one and want to remove the Limelight, Little Lime has similar flowers but won't typically get taller than 6' or so. You could start a new Limelight from cuttings or try to move your current one if you have space somewhere for your full-sized one.

Thank you so much for your help. I'm relieved to know that new growth doesn't have to come from the base. Guess I'll wait to see if they actually bloom this year. Again, thank you.

Hi,

I agree with tomandonnie.

You are fighting a losing battle trying
to keep Limelights to 5'. There are several
new smaller varieties such as little Lime
(as mentioned). I believe Bobo is small as
well.

I would cut the Limelights down to about
3' in very early spring and move them.

Pruning is key to flower production. I have
a group of Hydrangea Limelights that will get
about 1,000 blooms per plant.

Sorry miswrote. Agree with NHbabs

I have couple of LL which are about 15 yrs, every yr I would cut back to about 2' , bingo right back to 9'...this yr just remove last yrs blooms and again there at 9', I guess what i'm saying is just dead head the old booms every Spring

Other than cutting them down to 2 or 3 feet, what other pruning should I do? I would like for them to be bushier.

The pruning will make them bushier. If you check out the link I posted above, you will see a photo Deborah Silver add to her pruning explanation that shows 3 stems growing where the previous one had been cut.

Or just look at my photo

After 15yrs pruning here we are...I'll prune to shape them up, pictures taken just now

And some more Limelights. I have 458 Limelights.

Pruning Limelights

Depends on your goal but generally to get a nicely formed bush;

Take off all small weak stems
Cut off 1/3 of large stems
Cut off crossing branches
Cut off lateral/ horizontal branches

Flowercutter , Beautiful, who prunes/cuts 458 LL with about 50 Hys in the yard ...between pruning, watering mulch, some winter protection, leatfer moth in the spring and everything else I'm Tired... LOL..Thank You for your advice