Hydrangea - advice please

Hello, My hydrangea is about 4 feet tall and has flower buds coming on it but it is very "bald" in the middle of the plant and also against the fence behind it. What is the best way to encourage new central growth? Should I cut down all the front stems to allow light into the plant? Any advice would be much appreciated.

 

Hydrangea. a wonderful species. however there are many types. do you know the type you have? and how long has it been in that spot. some hydrangeas take a good 4 years before it really shines. some only 3. I never expect any new hydrangea to be wonderful on their second year. for now, I would leave it alone.

 

Hello, the hydrangea has been in my garden now for about 10 years. I think it is a "mop head" type and it always has loads of beautiful pinky/purple flower heads in the summer. I would like to stop it getting any bigger and wider but if I prune the outside stems it will jst be bare brown stems in the centre. I don't know how to encourage the middle of the plant to grow. Any help from someone who knows what they are doing would be much appreciated.
Many thanks .

 

Are there any signs of life on the brown stems low down?

 

No leaves but there are some little reddish bumps on the brown stems . Thank you for replying !

 

Those reddish bumps should be new leaves forming. That is how they generally start on mine. What I would suggest is not doing anything for a little while until leaves develop. Then, prune away the dead just above the highest leaf.

As everyone likes photos on here, these are mine. They are lacecaps that were planted in summer 2013. The photo was taken about 18 months later.

 

Oh my gosh they are beautiful. What an array of colour. I can't ever imagine mine being anything like as lovely as those. Thank you very much for your advice. I will keep watching and see how the "bumps" grow!

 

The very best time for pruning hydrangeas is now passed; March being the ideal time. The reason for that is that you leave the flower heads on the shrub throughout Winter as this "protects" the stems during the harshest time of year/weather.

I would suggest that you leave it alone for now and let it do it's thing this season. Then, next March when the weather warms up, cut *all* the stems back to the lowest point where you see a new pair of "bumps". This will a) reduce the height so not getting bigger; and b) encourage new growth, which may come from the middle.

I'm guessing, that the type you have only flowers on "new" wood? Meaning, it only flowers on the bits which have grown this year hence why your middle is bare? If you want to, you *could* cut down one or two of the fresh stems now and stick those into a pot of compost and tuck them away in a shady corner - do not let it dry out completely. I did that last year and the piece I cut off has not only grown through last years season, but is also coming into flower now. It's not without a bit of wishful thinking though. I recall about 4 years ago asking for an Idiot's Guide to Hydrangea cuttings. I was given some fantastic advice - which I followed to the letter - and ended up with some strong cuttings. However, popping a cut stem in a bit of compost in a pot last year (no faffing) has produced a just as good new plant. Who knew?


ETA: This is the thread with the Idiots guide to propagating Hydrangeas I was referring to above. Please note I posted that question September time but I think the advice would also be applicable now.

 

Thank you for the advice , I will do as you suggest and leave it for now.
Have been out plant shopping this afternoon , can't wait to get started planting them out in the garden.
I can totally understand how people get bitten by the gardening bug!!
Thanks again

 

Oops! I only started pruning mine by cutting off all the dead this morning. Mind you, we were still having heavy frosts until the beginning of last week. Thats my excuse and I'm sticking to it!

 

My advice didn't include global variations

 

Hi
Im new to this so please bear with me! Can anyone advise me how to get my hydrangea to bloom? I have 2 in similar areas of the garden, one blooms lovely, the other nothing! As you can see in the pics, plenty of buds on one but nothing on the other.
TIA

 

Is the one that does not bloom in full sun by any chance?

 

Hi it gets sun about half the day, will this affect the bloom?

 

Katie, some history could help.
Have you done anything to your bushes....pruning? If so, how and when?
However one thought when I saw your pictures....the second photo suggests plenty of rain run off there...?? The first photo suggests it is much drier....? Is this so?
Hydrangeas, as the name suggests, love and need plenty of water