“It’s Out of Control!” The Too Large Hydrangea
“It’s Out of Control!” The Too Large Hydrangea
Your hydrangea has gotten too big. It is growing up over the windows or spilling out into the walkway. Your hydrangea is covering nearby shrubs, or blocking the driveway. “How do I prune this to make it small again?” you ask.
The simple answer is that you don’t. Plants grow to be the size and shape that their genetics dictate, and trying to fight those genetics is foolish, especially if the plants have already gotten too tall. Additionally, the blue flowering mop head and lace cap hydrangeas that we Cape Codders love so much will not only replace and perhaps surpass their former height in one season, but will also have far fewer flowers if you cut them back. Here’s a photo to illustrate:
White flowering hydrangeas such as Annabelle or any of the Hydrangea paniculata, or panicle hydrangeas, flower on new growth so these will still flower well if they are cut back hard. But keep in mind this truism: pruning always stimulates growth. The more a shrub is pruned, the faster it will try and replace what it has lost.
If your hydrangea is too wide for the location, you can dig it up and divide the plant, or move it back away from driveways and walks. If just a few stems are hanging into walkways, follow those to the ground or where they join another stem, and cut them off. The plant will produce new growth, but for a very short time you’ll have the passageways clear. If a hydrangea is up over the windows, move it to another location where it can grow as large as its genetics are dictating that it will be.
So how to keep a hydrangea under the windows, away from the walkway, or short enough to see over? Plant a short variety in that spot. Every year there are dozens of shorter growing hydrangeas being introduced. For example, most shrubs in the Seaside Serenade® series of Monrovia hydrangeas stay under 4 feet tall. (Country Garden has several in that series in stock now.) Other hydrangeas that stay shorter are the Cityline series, Let’s Dance Diva, H. paniculata Bobo, and Little Quickfire.
One of the challenges of being a home landscaper or gardener is admitting that we are not totally in charge, and that a plant isn’t “out of control” just because it’s gotten bigger. Maybe it was planted in the wrong location, or perhaps no one knew just how large it would ultimately grow. In any case, pruning it back to try and make it small again isn’t the answer. There are dozens of fantastic, shorter Hydrangeas available in all colors. Let us help you find one that won’t need any controlling at all.
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