Pruning Hydrangeas After Winter Damage
Pruning Hydrangeas After Winter Damage
Now comes the moment of truth for Cape Cod gardeners. Early May is when we know how much damage the winter has done to our mop-head and lace-cap hydrangeas. Early may finds us either rejoicing, knowing that our plants will flower this summer, or despairing because it’s clear that this will be a season of few blooms.
Bottom line: if your hydrangea canes don’t have green leaves that are at least the size of a dime by May 6th, those canes were toasted by the winter and will need to be removed. Now it the time to prune your plants because you’ll be able to cut off any canes without leaves, or clean off the top of canes with buds that were zapped and leave the lower part where green leaves are opening. Here are a few photos to help you know what to cut and where.
If you go to the Informational Handouts page on this website there is a downloadable pdf about How To Prune Hydrangeas. That handout, and this blog post, are about the blue or pink types of hydrangeas such as the lace-caps and mop-heads. The white flowering varieties of Hydrangea paniculata (Pee Gee, LimeLight, Bobo etc) and Annabelle flower on new growth so as long as they are alive they will produce flowers even after a cold winter.
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THIS WAS SO VERY HELPFUL ESPECIALLY THE DIME SIZE CLUE. IT’S ALSO HELPFUL TO LEARN THAT THE WHITE VARIETY CAN BE PRUNED IN THE FALL.
TAHNKS SO MUCH,
MG
I just love your emails. The hydrangea pruning is interesting to know that the second week in May is when we will know what to prune.
Thanks for doing this. JB