pruning?

15 years ago

Hello all, I have my first hydrangea - a classic cream that turned pink this fall. It was planted in full bloom just in time for the rains from Irene to flatten it, but all foliage still healthy, and blooms pink but not wilted.

Should I cut off all the blooms now? It seems like every single stem has a blossom on the end! I would like to have them as dried arrangement this winter. How far down should I cut? Just enough to have a stem on the flower, or hard prune it close to the base of the plant? Or should the hard pruning wait for next spring?

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Comments (3)

luis_pr
15 years ago
Hello, sunnysideuphill. If you are going to try making dry arrangement, harvest the blossoms this time of the year. See the link below for more information:

http://www.hydrangeashydrangeas.com/dryingnat.html

Removal of the blooms above the first set of leaves, called deadheading, can be done at any time although most people leave them on the shrub and then deadhead them in early Spring. See the paragraph titled "REMOVING OLD BLOOMS" in this link:

http://www.hydrangeashydrangeas.com/pruning.html
sunnysideuphill
Original Author
15 years ago
What a great site, thank you!
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amj0517
15 years ago
Very good site luis_pr. Thanks.

But I'm still not completely clear on how to prune. I have Annabelles. Since I want them to get bigger and stronger the website says to prune to 18-24". Should I just cut straight across the whole plant, or take one dead bloom at a time?

They were planted this spring and I can see the cut branches where I assume it was pruned by the nursery. The cut areas didn't seem to grow this season. I'm not sure if this is normal so I don't want to contribute to a potential problem by pruning further.