Hydrangea bush help!

5 years ago

Hi everyone. I don't have photos for now but I think I can explain enough -- let me know if photos are needed.

I bought a house last fall and now I have several small hydrangea bushes in the front yard. This winter seemed especially hard for them as they never lost their leaves -- they just browned. I removed the leaves a few months ago but left the old wood. Now that it's spring, I can see there are some sprouts happening around the base of the plant but I don't see any sprouts on the old wood. I read that some hydrangeas sprout on old wood and some don't and I figured mine was the latter type. So I cut a couple of the bushes back to its roots. The second one I did had quite a few stems that were green and obviously still alive. Is it just taking awhile to sprout on the old wood or is this normal and should I continue to cut them all back?

I would rather have the sprout on old wood variety as I would love some big, beautiful hydrangea bushes!

TIA

Featured Answer

luis_pr

5 years ago

Smooth hydrangeas with their mophead blooms are very winter hardy (to zone 3) and are very bloom reliable because they start to produce flower buds late... meaning not in winter but, probably late Spring but it depends on where one is geographically. However, one thing smooth hydrangeas have in common is that their stems m-a-y flop somewhat so, I would recommend keeping the old stems as long as they leaf out in Spring. There are newer varieties that advertise stronger stems but, several people who have them in the forum say to take those claims with a grain of salt because theirs will still flop if the storm is windy and wet enough. Unpruned, older stems are woodier and can support more of the weight of wet blooms after a windy rainstorm compared to a brand new, green stem. The same holds true for paniculatas (also winter hardy to zone 3 and very bloom reliable) but, they develop flower buds some time after the smooth hydrangeas do and as a result, they bloom later than smooth hydrangeas.

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Comments (10)

tsugajunkie z5 SE WI ♱
5 years ago
Put the pruners down. Where are you located? My Endless Summer starts greening from the bottom up and my Little Quickfire is just now showing tiny bits of green all over. Pix may help ID what you have.

tj
Samantha Baker
Original Author
5 years ago
Ok sounds good to me. I really wish I got a good pic of them last fall before the frost but I didn't. I heard the previous owners didn't have any sort of green thumb whatsoever and out of the several bushes I have there were only like 2 blooms I saw that made it easy to see they were hydrangeas. Plus the leaves were right.

I'm in zone 5b!
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gardengal48 (PNW Z8/9)
5 years ago
If you live in zone 5b then you do not want a old wood bloomer......not unless you are prepared to provide winter protection by wrapping the entire plant with a thick layer of mulch or leaves. Old wood bloomers - Hydrangea macrophylla ctvs. - form their flower buds in late summer and fall on growth produced that season or earlier. These latent buds are easily destroyed by winter cold in zones lower than 7 unless that winter protection is provided.

Without protection, only the old and new wood bloomers will produce any flowering and that will be only on the new growth and late in the season. The previous season's growth is typically killed back to the ground or close to it and will not flower.

In your zone, the paniculatas or arborescens will be the easiest types of hydrangea to grow. Very cold tolerant and very reliable new wood bloomers.
Samantha Baker
Original Author
5 years ago
Hmm, I guess I'm a little confused. Almost every house in my area has these big, beautiful hydrangea bushes that bloom these gorgeous blooms during the summer and I never see any type of winterizing done with burlap in anyone's yard. I would think you would have to have old wood blooms to get bushes 5 feet tall?
gardengal48 (PNW Z8/9)
5 years ago
Samantha, it depends entirely on what kind of hydrangeas are being grown. Paniculatas can easily reach 5', usually quite a bit more, and do not require winter protection. A 5' tall bigleaf or macrophylla is unlikely to be seen in a zone 5 climate!! And most certainly not without winter protection.
floral_uk z.8/9 SW UK
5 years ago
Tell us what colour these hydrangeas are, Samantha. I’m guessing white, not pink or blue.
luis_pr
5 years ago
last modified: 5 years ago
If you are not familiar with hydrangeas, maybe this link to leaf and bloom pictures will help you identify the type of hydrangea that you already have:

https://plantaddicts.com/types-of-hydrangeas/
Samantha Baker
Original Author
5 years ago
Thanks for helping everyone, I'm learning a lot! Yes all the hydrangeas I see are usually white. From the link that @luis_pr posted, they look a lot like the smooth hydrangeas.
floral_uk z.8/9 SW UK
5 years ago
The fact that you’re not seeing any blue or pink indicates that nobody near you has macrophyllas.