Looking good healthy and all ready for flowers next year.

I believe panicled Hydrangeas bloom on new wood, so you might see some flowers yet.

Thanks for sharing. :-)

djacobz..I don't think I've ever seen a Limelight with so many blooms!..it takes courage to prune a shrub that blooms so well but I like the new form and size..good luck 🙂..

WOW, I have a couple of them. 2 years old and not close to blooming yet this year

and no chance of looking like that. The recommendation is to cut them back by 1/3 each year and I have done that. Along a 6 foot high east west fence so they are slow getting going so maybe I should have held back on pruning until they were higher than the fence.
- Jon

Each cut you make when you prune has the potential of producing two branches. That's two when you previously had only one.

Panicle hydrangeas produce one bloom at the end of each branch. So pruning gives you the option to double the number of blooms.

Panicle hydrangeas bloom on new branches, so prune in spring as they start showing life. You'll get the results you are looking for. Prune every year. Your goal is to have as many blooms as possible, and to have leaves all the way back to the mother trunk. So prune back hard if your branches are leafless and hope you get two new branches that produce leaves all along their length plus blooms on their tips.

Panicle hydrangeas bloom late. Do it now. Just do it!

If each branch terminates in a bloom then won’t the plant be forced to branch the next season upon bud break since there is no terminal bud?

if you prune the plant back are womd you be reducing the number of buds that can break thus the number of blooms?

Thanks fir useful info! I should work on mine. Just went to Japanese gardens. Boy do they chop them off.

These hydrangeas bloom on new growth, so yours will be full of blooms later THIS summer. The harder the prune the larger but fewer blooms there will be. These can be cut to the ground every spring and be expected to bloom with sometimes enormous panicles. But large size heads tend to look coarse IMO, and are very subject to the effects of heavy wind and rain. Unpruned plants can become small trees with lots of congested wood but also lots of small blooms. When I grew these I aimed for the middle ground, removing small interior non-blooming wood and shortening larger stems so only a 6 foot ladder was needed for the job lol. The plants were covered with mid size blooms, but were still subject to heavy rain and wind. Do not be afraid to prune these, they are very forgiving, but do so before the season's growth expands.

The saddest hydrangea situation I've seen is when a homeowner buys a single-trunk tree hydrangea with a round upper body all full of blooms, loving its symmetry. Then the second season this homeowner doesn't prune it, either from not knowing this is needed, or for fear of hurting the plant. Each unpruned branch grows out farther and blooms just fine by midsummer, but the base of each branch, which last year was full of leaves, is now naked wood. The new green growth, full of leaves, grows up towards the sky and blooms high. This allows that now-bare wood on the bases of the branches to show below. What was once a nice round hydrangea "on standard" full of leaves is now an ugly thing with all its green foliage and blooms held high on bare wood that flares out from the original single trunk. It now needs a hard prune to bring it back to its intended symmetry. That homeowner, reluctant to hurt the plant with a prune before, is not prepared to do the necessary hard prune, and will probably regret buying the tree.

That is absolutely beautiful. Keep us updated on the progress. I just love it

2 Years against a 6 foot fence. Misses Spring sun. Prune back 1/3 off the top each year. I'm thinking maybe with the blocking of the sun early I should cut off the bottom branches especially on the right) and make it more of a true standard and continue chopping half the growth on top. I was always concerned about chopping too much off, but not anymore. - Jon

Thanks everybody——liquidfeet described my situation exactly. I have a tree form and wanting it to grow some, really did not realize I should have been pruning it yearly. Last year, it was damaged by a large tree branch that fell into the yard. I lost one of the main branches. Also, as you could see from the photos, the tree had gotten so wide, with rain, I always feared breakage. You have all given me great information and I will keep you posted.

debra

My Limelight has been pruned by the deer. I’ve never remembered to prune it so am leaving it be to see what happens.

How cold tolerant is a hydrangea tree? I would love to have a standard or tree of anything that would survive a potentially frigid winter to maybe -30F. Rose trees/standards are definitely out so I imagine this would be also?

Quote from Proven Winners about hardiness in winter for Paniculata Hydrangeas:

Where can you grow panicle hydrangeas?

One of the things that makes them so popular – besides their undeniable good looks – is that they grow over so much of North America, from chilly USDA zone 3 through balmy USDA zone 8 (even USDA zone 9 in the case of ‘Limelight’). That means they can be planted everywhere from Manitoba to Mobile, and in every area, you can count on big, beautiful blooms in summer. Panicle hydrangeas offer the best cold and heat tolerance of all the types of hydrangeas.

Here's mine today. Can't say exactly what kind it is. I found it along the house and moved it to it's current location a couple of years ago. 3 ft. tall? I had a dozen or so blooms last summer but the deer like the blossom buds and will eat them all if they're able to reach them. Got through fine winter of 2018-2019 when it hit -46 F.

Glad I read this thread about the pruning. It was a triple trunk after it was cut off by the builders, now it's twin trunk. It has such nice shape I think I'll leave it. Grows like a weed, a nice weed. :-)

Yes Ikaytwvz5, I am in Milwaukee, Wisconsin USA, z5b. The tree has done just fine with all SE Wisconsin weather. Good luck if you purchase one.. Make sure whoever plants it for you sets it straight and stakes it for stability until it’s established. The nursery that planted mine did neither. My yard has a slight downward slope and they set the tree with the ground level rather than at a 90 degree angle.

debra

So its not too late to prune it now? I had two and if I had known how to prune it, I might still have two. I took out one in a sunny spot so I could plant other stuff. It had grown a little unwieldy in 4 years. The one in shade looks worse. Definitely needs a prune. Now or after it blooms in the fall or next spring? It has flower buds now. I should probably limb up the nearby Oak tree so it gets more light too.

this is one of my underperforming light deprived Limelights..over time I've removed dead and ugly branches to improve their shape..they still work as screening and I have space so I keep them..3?4? weeks ago I removed a crooked ugly branch as far back as I could with my hand pruners..yesterday I showed my husband the stub so that he could saw it off..it had leaves!..I was surprised!..we left it for now..I leave all of them unpruned to continue as taller thinner screening..I don't think my shade allows them to be lush..would you cut them back hard next year?..I'm afraid I'd regret it..

@steve duggins(Z6a) - Central Ohio, you ask if it's "too late" to prune your hydrangea now. "Too late" can have different meanings.

If you prune the blooms off now, you won't get blooms this season. Your plant will get a head start on making new branches at the cuts if you prune now. You'll get a more compact plant through July, August, Sept. But no blooms.

Some people want those blooms with intensity. The plant, for them, was bought primarily for the blooms. If you want the blooms, wait until after blooming to prune. All you lose is a little time. But you'll have to live with the plant as it now looks for a bit longer this season if you value this year's blooms.

Thanks, I think I'll limb up the Oak tree now and prune the Hydrangea hard after bloom. The Hosta nearby may fry in the sun, but they should be better next year barring any late season freezes.

Steve I was going to recommend the same as liquidfeet. Let the tree bloom and enjoy that spectacle. I have read you can prune fall or spring. I did mine last fall. As you can see I did prune hard. But it’s coming along nicely now. As you consider your prune, like you said just be aware some shade will be lost for the next year. I am very surprised that all my hostas that did receive shade from the tree are doing really fine. No leaf burn yet! I read prune out any downward branches, crossovers, thin & weak ones and any that don’t fit with with the shape you are going for. Good luck and show us your before and after when you do it!

debra

Thanks Debra, there is plenty of high shade from the Oaks (too much) so I think the Hosta will be fine even when I prune. Problem will be in a year or two when the Hydrangea gets denser it will shade too much. Hmmm, maybe I'll just leave a single stem to get it branching up higher. I always hated stooping underneath it to plant/deal with weeds. Then again, it won't be as wide so it might be OK. I'll figure it out and post my results. Thanks for starting this topic so I can improve my trees that I (obviously) don't care as much about (until now).

Mine went kinda wild with a few good rains and supplemental watering. I put a stake in to straighten the center branch to train it into a tree eventually.

Here’s that same tree today:

From the deck

From the second story window.

The hard prune did not hurt it a bit!

debra

Wow, that bloomed out really nice!

Did you do any selective pruning, after the initial pruning, to make the blooms stand up so nice?

All of my branches bent over from the weight of the blooms, yours look like they stood up nice and straight.

eta: Ah, I see yours is a 'tree form'. Mine isn't. :-\

Oh, super gorgeous! Thanks for update. I light trim whatever hydrangeas I have this fall.

Bill, I just did the hard cutback and nothing further. You can see in the top down photo, that several blooms are really hanging low. We had some rain and those branches dropped. Otherwise, I am surprised by how straight up the branches grew. btw, this tree gets pretty much sun.

debra

Thanks!

Mine looked good until a hard rain came. My branches always get long and slender so after the rain hit, all the branches flopped to the outside. It has twin main trunks so I'll work in the direction of a single trunk. You can't hurt these things so it'll be a good learning experience. :-)

I have 3 limelight hydrangea trees. We weren’t sure how to prune them, and now two of them have large suckers at the base of the trunk, which caused them to lean and look sloppy. Would cutting them off make them look bad next year? I have photos for reference.