Another hydrangea query this time hard pruning

Hi,

i am hoping for advice on hard pruning my white hydrangea. It has had a hard life, took it out from a derelict garden, pruned it right down and it took two yrs to get to 2 ft tall again, trouble is it is very leggy and not bushy. I have seen a staking technique that involves splaying the outer stems outwards in a starlike shape, pointing the flowerheads down and gently pruning the central stems. Is this appliable to hydrangea? Or is there a perfect solution?

 

Take it back to the derelict garden.:D:thumb:

Sorry, I'll get my coat.:rolleyes:

 

You ****** you!

 

I am not sure what you mean exactly about the "star staking". Anyway.

If you pruned the plant to the ground two years ago I would not prune it hard again. Done to often if ends up weakening the plant even more. What you can do now is prune all the flower heads off and shorten the branches leaving a couple of strong side shoots (or buds) on each. They will start some new growth already this summer, but don't feed the plant until spring. You don't want too much green growth before autumn now, if would only freeze. It may easily take two years from now before the plant is bushy and plump, and you may lose a season of flowers, but it will recover. My "White wave" (as I think your plant is) is not especially large. I just don't think that it grows very tall.

Once the plant is established you can decide each spring wether to prune aiming to few very large flowerheads or to numerous smaller ones. In the first case you will prune early in spring (in Italy formeit was mid late february, here more like mid late march) removing all the flower buds but, say, two or four (one or two couples) per branch. The buds that are going to produce flowering shoots are noticeably larger than those which will only make foliage, and are the higher up in the branch.
If you are not interested in large flowers (they can be really too much in a border, and they tend to droop in rainy weather) you omit this pruning and leave the plant alone except for removing spindly thin branches and dead wood.
In both cases, when a shrub matures it is a good habit to remove the older branches, that are usually very woody and, well, branched, all the way down to the ground. This lets more space, light and air for vigourous young shoots and keeps the plant looking spry.

All of the above is true for H. macrophylla and serrata, not for the other species.

Hope it was clear else ask away

 

thanks ivory, been waiting for you.

i will post a pic of the plant in its quite shocking state as is. just have to find that camera

 

You are very welcome dear. One thing I learned about hydrangeas is that hey are really resilient. They may have bad moments but they don´t let go. If you take a bit of care they come back nicely. Sometimes disasters happens but they recover. Another thing I like about them is that they are extremely sensitive to the environment and climate but relatively free from pests. So it needs care and attention to bring them to their very best but you don´t have to spray poison every other week to keep them healthy. That is very important to me. They are eco friendly stunners.

 

Hi again chuckie egg,

Don`t slap my legs at the state of this poor thing-remember I saved it from certain death




and a bit closer




And which one is this, I saw it at my local nursery for £4 !!!! Bargain, its going a bit pinky and it was a gorgeous purple so tips would be sucked right up

 

I think you should give that Hydrangea the last rites Claire.

 

Right I told you last time sunshine! I will take those pics google earth 'em, find you and smack yer a8se for yer!

And stop wetting yersel' laughing!!!!

 

To get it to o blue bury a few scraps of copper pipe or water on coppersulphate solution/hydranga colurant.

Re the woody Hydranga, come march cut a third of the growth down to the base and the remaining 2/3 just shy of half way, all cuts to a bud. this is the method I use.

Remember that rejuvantion pruning should take place over atleast two seasons, simply chopping to the base means no flowers for a season and risks weakening the plant.

 

Cheers for the helpful post Paul,

I want it to go back to purple, i think it was the sequestrine i put in for the poorly one that did it.

I Always do stuff like this.

 

Sequestrine is iron sulphate, used to acidify, no use for hydrangas.

 

I had thought it was iron chelate and was for the yellowing of the leaves.

 

it is

 

thats what i used it for-now you know it aint hard to confuse me, and tweaks is taking the mick as well!