Success With Hydrangeas Blog

I am getting a lot of questions these days about hydrangea leaf spots and unsightly foliage. In most cases, the spots are from an infection by Xanthomonas campestris, or Cercospora which grows from the pathogen Cercospora hydrangeae. I’m also seeing powdery mildew on many other plants, like veggies and perennials that also blemish hydrangeas. You…

Autumn is the best time for transplanting your hydrangeas (that means now), unless you live in the Southern Hemisphere.

You have probably heard hydrangeas described as having a beautiful “antique” season of color, the late season. In most cases, the plants being discussed are big leaf (macrophylla) and mountain (serrata) hydrangeas. But don’t discount the oakleaf (quercifolia) and woodland/smooth (arborescens) hydrangeas. Their flowers also change into other colors. More about them later…

TAKE A BREAK FROM HYDRANGEA WORK If you are in the northern hemisphere and in zone 6 and colder, the beginning of August is the time to take a break from working on hydrangeas that flower on old wood. That translates into big leaf (macrophylla), mountain (serrata), oak leaf (quercifolia), and climbing (petiolaris) varieties.

Our fabulous hydrangea season continues. But now it’s time to think about hydrangea pruning in mid-season, specifically big leaf and mountain hydrangeas. We have had so much good weather that the plants are putting on lots of new growth. That’s good news and bad news. Good news in that the new growth will fuel your…

Now that it is July, it’s time to fertilize your hydrangeas, especially for next year. You should be having a fabulous hydrangea year. The relatively mild winter and forgiving spring is giving all of us a fantastic show. Just about every big leaf hydrangea (macrophylla) is flowering. But don’t be lulled into thinking you can…

I was horrified this past weekend to spot an extensive case of hydrangea scale on my climbing hydrangea (hydrangea ssp. petiolaris). It was an accidental discovery as my original mission was to prune it back. As covered in my book, Success with Hydrangeas, climbing hydrangeas flower on old wood so I knew it had to…

Now is the time to get ready for hydrangea bouquets. Between the mild winter and gradual spring warming, just about all of my big leaf hydrangeas are beginning to show their flowers. If you live in warmer parts of the country, yours are well ahead of this timing. So now I am looking forward to…

During one of my recent zoom talks, I was asked for info about mail order suppliers for hydrangeas. After having answered the question, it occurred to me that you might be interested in the same info. It seems timely.

It’s finally time to prune your big leaf and mountain hydrangeas. This is in addition to what I wrote in January about hydrangea pruning. At that time I wrote that it was safe to go out and prune your woodland/smooth hydrangeas and your panicle hydrangeas. If you haven’t already done that, get going unless you live…