HYDRANGEAS: WHAT KIND DO YOU HAVE

Collage of different types of hydrangeas

I am often asked to help someone identify what kind of hydrangea they have. Many people have plants that they inherited when they bought their home, or someone gave it to them, or they lost the tag, etc. You may wonder why this matters. It matters ‘cause in hydrangea-land you treat different kinds of hydrangeas…

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NEW HYDRANGEAS COMING THIS YEAR

Hydrangea macrophylla 'Heart Throb' has blood red flowers

As I promised in my last post of 2021, here is the second installment about new hydrangeas that are coming to  local garden centers in 2022. Some are newer than others, but since it takes a while to build up stock, it also takes time to get them out into gardeners’ hands.

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HYDRANGEA WINTER PROTECTION

Big Leaf Hydrangea being wrapped for winter

I woke up to a very dark 44 degrees F this morning, a stark reminder that I need to get organized to do some hydrangea winter protection. Those that aren’t planted in protected locations as I described in an earlier blog post need a little help if I want to give them their best chance…

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AUGUST: TAKE A BREAK FROM MOST HYDRANGEA WORK

Think Before Pruning Old Wood Hydrangeas

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.

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HYDRANGEA SCALE

Climbing hydrangea on arbor

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…

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TRANSPLANTING HYDRANGEAS 

Hydrangea Macrophylla in full bloom

I am getting lots of questions about transplanting hydrangeas. This post should help answer most of them. Transplanting hydrangeas follows the general rule for transplanting anything: do it in the season opposite of the one in which it performs, i.e., its “off season.” So if something blooms in the fall, transplant and divide it in…

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Time to Prepare Hydrangeas for Winter

It happened again – sudden freezing temps hit before my hydrangeas had a chance to harden off. Not a frost, but a solid freeze at 27 F that turned the birdbath turned into a skating rink. So sad to go outside and see what those temps did to my big leaf and mountain hydrangeas. Time…

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2019 Winter Impact on Hydrangeas

Weather chart showing extremely low winter temperatures

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. 

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