Hydrangea winter protection question

7 years ago

This isn’t gonna be the typical winter protection question, as I‘m already aware I need to protect my macrophylla hydrangeas if I want to see any blooms in my zone (5b) in fact I’m in the process of protecting them right now, as we had our first hard frost last night. After doing some research, I decided to go with the stem flattening method, as I have a lot of brick pavers left over from re-doing landscaping this past summer, and I thought they’d be perfect for holding hydrangea stems down. Theres also an endless supply of leaves and pine needles on my property, so I have everything I need!

But here’s my concern: Winters here are very back-and-forth, and there’s times where it’s warm enough to rain, but still cold enough + almost no sunshine in winter, that it takes very long for stuff to dry out (if at all) and seeing as I’m going to be piling leaves on my hydrangeas, I’m just worried that my hydrangeas won’t be able to breath, and that they might eventually rot, especially if this winters like last winter, which was very wet. So, anyone with knowledge and experience, will they be okay? Am I just over worrying, or should I go about protecting them a different way?

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Comments (3)

luis_pr
7 years ago
They should be ok. Are you concerned because the area does not drain well?
Billy (Zone6 Mass)
6 years ago
last modified: 6 years ago
Last season I filled a cage with hay to protect mine. When I removed the hay in April, the more mature shrub was perfectly fine. No rot. The other one which was a baby shrub (bought it very late in the season) and had extremely thin canes (thinner than a pencil). The canes rotted and the shrub basically had to start over at the beginning of this season. Luckily the baby shrub is now a large shrub has super thick canes. I'm hoping I don't have the same problem last season.

I was debating on trying to put a cover over just the top of the cage to minimize the amount of moisture that gets into the hay.
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kitasei
6 years ago
In my experience struggling with macrophyllas in zone 6b, I think protecting the tips is crucial because that is where the blooms that show will be. If you leave them exposed to freeze and thaw, you'll end up with a leafy shrub with buried blooms. If your shrubs are large, as mine now are (all that winter protection!), it is difficult to keep those top tips under leaves as they inevitably settle during the winter. My plan for this spring is to have towels ready to hurl on their tops. (Unless someone here tells me that towels will not work for this, and that I must sacrifice blankets? or buy special thermal blankets?)