No blooms

11 years ago

I have a wall of bushes against the side of our sunroom windows and there are NO blooms on them again this year - we've lived here 5 years and they were planted the first year and bloomed great the first 3 seasons. Other people have blooms in our neighborhood so I went to investigate and discovered (to my sheer horror!) that there were 1-4 earwigs aka pincher bugs camping out in each group of leaves where the blooms should be. I'm assuming they are eating them frown emoticon What do I do to naturally/safely get rid of earwigs?!? I am not spraying anything toxic as my son and nephew play right near them. We have a dog too.

Featured Answer

morz8 - Washington Coast

11 years ago

last modified: 11 years ago

Heili, Nikko Blue is a hydrangea macrophylla. It blooms on old wood, meaning it forms its flower buds in late summer that will winter over if temperatures cooperate and bloom from those the following season.

If you are doing more than deadheading old flower heads, you could be removing the wood that would carry the current years flowers....cutting it off.

Hydrangea macrophylla doesn't really require pruning other than removing damaged or winter killed stems after growth has resumed in Spring. If you experienced the colder temperature many were facing these last couple of winters and early spring, you may not have had live flower buds anyway without having provided some kind of winter protection for your plants.

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Comments (9)

Lalala (zone 6b)
11 years ago
What kind of hydrangea are they? Or if you don't know, what do the leaves and blooms (when they bloom) look like? Have you pruned at all? What zone/state are you in? It's probably not the earwigs' fault.
Heili Sillard
Original Author
11 years ago
I'm central/coastal NJ. I did prune early spring before any growth. They are Nikko Blue.
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Lalala (zone 6b)
11 years ago
If you pruned in early spring, unfortunately, you pruned off the flowers-to-be. Nikko Blue blooms on old (last year's or previous) wood. Next year leave it alone and you should be fine! It will look like sticks for a long time but resist the urge to cut.

If you do need to prune because of size, you can do it in midsummer; expect reduced blooms the following year but you'll probably still have some.
Heili Sillard thanked Lalala (zone 6b)
luis_pr
11 years ago
last modified: 11 years ago
Earwigs are usually "good guys" predators that feed off aphids, mites and other
insects. They eat during the night and hide in damaged leaf tissues
during the day. Should they get out of control, you can apply some
insecticidal soap. Or you could attract their predators: birds, lizards, spiders (kind of tough except for the birds I agree).

But normally, I would not expect these visitors to be causing the damage while there are nice leaves ready to be eaten instead.

Nikko can be grown up to Zone 6 and then it becomes finicky. However, the last two years were very bad winters in many places. Down here, Zone 8!, I had some similar macrophyllas and one oakleaf that this year did not bloom. Since you have had them for 5 years and had blooms on the first three, winter is probably to blame on the last two years' problem.

Specifically, I am talking about when temperatures fluctuate a lot. That can make the shrub break dormancy. And if the plant does this, the flower buds may get zapped if temperatures crash. A mild dip below freezing is ok but a large dip would cause problems. The best solution to this problem would be to winter protect.
Heili Sillard thanked luis_pr
October_Gardens
11 years ago
WE NEED STICKY TOPICS HERE. That is all.
Heili Sillard thanked October_Gardens
Heili Sillard
Original Author
11 years ago
What do you mean "sticky topics" ?
Lalala (zone 6b)
11 years ago
Springwood gardens wasn't responding to you directly, Heili. "Sticky topics" just means a post that will "stick" to the top of the thread and always be in the #1 position. It would have FAQs or commonly given advice--since lots of people (including, repeatedly, my mom and mother in law!) accidentally prune off their flowers in early spring. :-)
Heili Sillard thanked Lalala (zone 6b)
Heili Sillard
Original Author
11 years ago
I see, thank you!