Success With Hydrangeas Blog

Valentine’s Day is the perfect time to learn about the language of hydrangea flowers. We’re talking here about the most popular hydrangea: mophead, hortensia, pompom or big leaf. Botanically, it’s hydrangea macrophylla. Although we know this plant originated in Asia, we also know from fossil discoveries that it existed 40-65 million years ago in North…

Hydrangeas as cut flowers are perfect if you are feeling hydrangea-starved. That describes me a week or two ago. Then we had two consecutive days of temps in the 60s. That gave me a terminal case of spring fever! But I knew enough not to rush out and start playing with my hydrangeas. Living in…

This is the time of year to be alert to deer damage on hydrangeas. The winter weather pattern of deep cold, snow, and ice storms has made it increasingly difficult for them to get around and find food sources to sustain life. Deer tracks are the obvious tip off so here’s what to look for.

We have had a few nights where the temps have dropped into the high 30s, a sobering reminder that it’s time for preparing hydrangeas for winter. Specifically, time to wrap some of my bigleaf (macrophyllas) and mountain (serratas) hydrangeas. Those that aren’t planted in protected locations as I described in my other blog posts, HERE and…

On my recent garden visits, I’ve noted an abundance of unsightly foliage and hydrangea leaf spots. They can be bacterial leaf spot from an infection by Xanthomonas campestris, or Cercospora which grows from the pathogen Cercospora hydrangeae. I’m also seeing powdery mildew on many plants. You can thank Erysiphe friesii var. friesii (formerly Microsphaera friesii).…

In July, I wrote about web worms (Hyphantria cunea) on panicle hydrangeas. For the past several weeks, the second generation of web worms has been active in my neck of the woods. And boy, are they active! It seems every day they form new webs where none were the previous day. That will continue through October or until the…

I have been roaming around these past few weeks, visiting open gardens throughout my local area. The panicle hydrangeas have been just glorious in every garden I have seen with their undeniably spectacular flowers and form. Not to mention the impressive flowers of oak leaf hydrangeas are showing their magnificent colors as well. PANICLE HYDRANGEAS:…

Hard to believe we are past mid-July – already! NOW is the time to deal with the last bit of mid-season hydrangea care for July, ideally by August 1. JULY HYDRANGEA CARE: PINCH PRUNE Hydrangea care in July involves “pinch pruning” any of your hydrangeas that flower on old wood. What’s the science behind this?…

If your garden is anything like mine, right about now insects and disease start rearing their ugly heads  signaling time for hydrangea care. In most cases, they show up as a result of cultural conditions. We had a very wet and cool spring and things have finally begun to dry out. But all that rain…

Time to report on 2019 winter impact on hydrangeas. In early May, I went out to my Zone 5 garden to see what the past winter had done to my hydrangeas that bloom on old wood: big leaf (macrophylla) and mountain hydrangea (serrata). I also checked on the oak leaf (quercifolia) and climbing (petiolaris) hydrangeas I grow.