Where is Zone B? Yes the blooming season for oakleaf hydrangeas have been over for a while now (in Atlanta oakleaf varieties usually bloom starting mid May). They are the first hydrangeas to bloom.

The last two winters have been plain bad for hydrangeas. One of my oakleaf hydrangeas did not bloom this year too, due to wild temperature fluctuations that made it break dormancy during winter and this killed the flower buds. My other oakleaf hydrangeas did not get "awakened" and they bloomed fine. I hope to get blooms on that one in Spring 2016 if Winter 2015-2016 is not as bad as the previous one! It is now being panpered. I keep a close eye on soil moisture and just added more mulch to keep it at 3-4".

A word of caution: Oakleaf hydrangeas develop invisible flow buds starting in July-August so do not try pruning it now.

A 2 year old shoot may just not be mature enough to bloom. I'd just give it more time. And it is certainly too small to require any pruning! FWIW, timing of the bloom period depends a great deal on location. Oakleaf hydrangeas in my area do not start blooming until well into summer and continue to produce flower heads until fall. They are in full bloom right now.

Not all hydrangeas are grown in the South :-)

I didn't mean that to be a criticism - just an observation :-) It is just that often on this forum posts about bloom time and related issues with regards to pruning after the bloom cycle seem to focus on when these plants bloom in the south: e.g. "Yes the blooming season for oakleaf hydrangeas have been over for a while now " Not necessarily!! Hydrangeas of all types grow and bloom superbly in my area and I am very far north (more northerly than Bangor, Maine!). And these are all most definitely mid to late summer blooming shrubs in this area, with the bloom period extending almost until frost in October.

I understand what you meant. Usually our bearded iris are blooming in April, May. We went to Yellowstone years ago and drove through Jackson Hole first week in July where bearded irises were in full bloom. If we knew the OP's zone or where they lived then we could probably be more helpful.

Must be nice having those warm winds from the Pacific in winter, gardengal48 (as opposed to those cold chilly ones from Canada)!!! I loved the result when I was in the area some years ago. Then again, all that ground shaking and the Cascadia Fault make it difficult to decide which is better! Hope you are in a 'safe' area. And yes, I recently saw the Discovery Channel Program about earthquakes!!! Hee hee hee!.

Ha!! There isn't a 'safe zone' on the Pacific coast AFA earthquakes are concerned. When the big one comes, I expect my house - what might be left of it - to be several feet/fathoms underwater!! But after watching some program about earthquakes on NOVA, I am less concerned about earthquakes happening in my area than I am about some massive ones occurring elsewhere that will pretty much end life on earth as we know it. LOL!! Those shows are supposed to be informative, not terrifying!!

And we do get those cold, chilly winds from up north in winter - they are called 'Arctic blasts' and there are usually at least a couple each season that will drop temps into the low 20's, even teens, for a couple of days.

I hate it when we get those "Arctic Blasts", "Alberta Clippers", and "Nor'easters" that dip down into "the south". BRRR!

I never knew that a "Siberian Express" could affect North America. HAHA!

http://www.weather.com/safety/winter/news/siberian-express-arctic-blast-cold-record-impacts

Well, no Arctic blasts now down here. Just hot. Last week, we did get a cold front that broke through a High that had been sitting on top of us and temperatures moderated to the upper 90s. And this week has been cooler sometimes.

And as usual for summer here, people have started talking about soil movement braking water mains. Another one hit a coworker yesterday. He thought the problem was on his property but now thinks otherwise. The road in front of his house has a crack and a bulge so he was saying he may see "waterworks" if the water company does not fix the leak soon. Hydrangeas would probably say 'bring it on!'. Ha!

By the way, the earthquake show, not surprisingly, did not mention that we have been having a boatload of small earthquakes down here for the last few years. In Irving, a town east of me and closer to Dallas, there have been a lot of small earthquakes develop. Suspicions center on gas drilling areas but, they are slowly moving to research this new phenomenon. I have not felt any where I work or live but my sister works in Irving and had to evacuate the building where she works once. Do understand that these are temblors under 4.0 but frankly, I do not know how strong of an earthquake construction has been used in buildings down here (probably zilch) which is why it is best to leave the buildings asap.

But we digress..... sorry, gle2011

I hope no one is getting Arctic blasts in the heat of August - at least in the northern hemisphere but then in the southern hemisphere I would imagine they would get "Antarctic blasts" as they are in their winter.

We were at 55 F this morning on our deck but I don't think that will last long before hot weather hits again.

I would not be surprised that the earth sinking/moving (which in turn causes water main breaks and small earthquakes) aren't affected by all the drilling and fracking.

I'm in the same boat as Luis - this is the second year in a row that I have no oakleaf blooms at all - none, zero, nada. It's so sad that these harsh winters are doing such a number on all these hydrangeas. My QuickFires, Limelights and Bobos are lovely, but I sure do miss those lovely Oakleaf blooms. I'm thinking about going through the process of winterizing them - but geez, come fall, I'm so busy mulching all my oak leaves that I have no energy left for anything else. But I just might muster up the time to do it this fall - and then, just watch, it will be a mild winter and my cage of mulched leaves will be a haven for all the rabbits to eat the oak leaf hydrangeas in private - I actually thought about that in bed last night!!!!

Use chicken wire if you want to exclude rabbits. It may be great for voles though. Where do you live? That could have a lot to do with your oak leaves. All my oak leaves bloomed except Snowflake but it bloomed the last two years. Weird?

Ellen Huff is a great oak leaf. May be one of my favorites. Not tall but spreads. Large pure white panicles with extra large leaves.

Little Honey - great color. Blooms are icing on the cake.

Snow Queen gets quite tall so I can't take photos of the top at the same time as the bottom else one would be in the shadows or the other would be blown out. I think the top is about ten feet tall.

Harmony bloomed for the first time this year but the blooms were so heavy it was on the ground. (This is not my Harmony but an older specimen in another gent's garden in Fayetteville, GA.

Instead of leaves for winter protection, you could try mulch. You are going to use ALL the mulch and more in Spring anyway so, use it now in some of the shrubs so you do not have to mess around collecting the leaves.

Hi Luis - Now that we're on the subject of winter protection so we can see these beautiful blooms (BTW, I'm SE Michigan zone 5/6) - I have so many oak leaves, it's not a problem of the collection of leaves. My question is - does the chicken wire or stakes with burlap have to go all the way to the top of the hydrangeas? Having never done this, I've read up on it and get conflicting theories. I'm going to need to buy a ton of chicken wire or burlap to do all my lace caps and oak leafs which haven't bloomed for two years. I might need to price it out and see which is cheaper and easier to work with. I'm also afraid of breaking branches while I stuff the leaves down into the "cage" - oy vey, it sounds like a ton of work, but then maybe it's worth it. If any of you experts can advise me, I would greatly appreciate it. Many thanks.

you have all mentioned different varieties of the oak hydrangea.

are there any particular ones that would do well in a partial sun area in zone 5b, southern coastal Maine.

we are most interested in tall and broad varieties.

thanks,

gle2011

Oakleaf hydrangeas are normally hardy to Zone 5; they are well suited to inland or coastal regions but not too too coastal as it may not tolerate windy locations as well as some of the macrophyllas (mopheads). Alice is very commonly sold. Snow Queen has stems that hold upright better than other oakleaf hydrangeas. Ellen Huff is very vigorous.

The reason for the cage is to hold the leaves or mulch in place so they will protect the flower buds located near the end of the stems. The more separation between the end of the stems and the cage, the more protective materials you can pack in to protect the flower buds. Some branches go straight up so you need to protect those. Other branches grow sideways so you need to protect those too.

Another way... I have seen some people winter protect mopheads by placing a cardboard on top of the dry stems in the Fall and press them downwards (strongly but softly) until they are flat, parallel to the ground. Then they add leaves on top and another cardboard so the leaves do not fly away. Then some rocks to hold the cardboards in place. When the whole contraption is removed in the Spring, the stems grow back straight up. I have not tried this way.

I am in SE Mich. My landscaper planted 3 oakleaf hydrangeas (I don't
know the variety) in July. They seem to be growing and look good,
other than the nasty leaf rust on them.

Can I expect blooms next year?

Should I do something to winterize them this year? Can I tell by looking at them if there are buds on them for next year?

They look in great shape to me. As a matter of fact, I would expect to see bloomage now. My Pee Wee looked a bit smaller when I got it and it had blooms (then again, the greenhouses do wonderful things when the wholesalers want to force plants to bloom! Ha!) Not sure why you do not have any this year unless the landscaper cut them off. Not a BIG deal though. Just a minor thing; I actually prefer that the plants use the time in year '0' to develop a good root system instead.

Oakleaf hydrangeas develop invisible flower buds in July (down here) thru August (up North) so, keep them well mulched (3-4" of mulch) and keep the soil evenly moist... until the ground freezes. The buds will remain invisible until they open in Spring.

As soon as a finger inserted to a depth of 4" feels dry or almost dry, give them either 1.5 gallons of water in the summer or 1 gallon at other times. Once they go dormant, you can water once every two weeks if there is no rain.

Being hardy to Z5, they usually should be fine with just 3-4" of mulch and need no winter protection. But two reasons I can think of for winter protecting them are (1) they were planted late in your growing season or (2) if the winter weather is unstable and temperatures go up and down a lot, the plant could break dormancy and you could then loose the flower buds. I actually had #2 happen last winter even though I am in Z8: one oakleaf had no blooms (Ruby Slippers) and another had blooms (Pee Wee). A cousin of mine in Illinois always tells me that she prefers to plant the shrubs in the Spring due to her cold winters so, I would winter protect this year since they were planted in late July. And I would -optionally- winter protect on other years to prevent issue #2.