Hydrangea dilemma

Hi all

I have some Mophead Hydrangeas that has usually always flowered from old wood. NB They were moved twice last year for a variety of reasons.
This year, budding started as normal but over the last few weeks all of the topmost buds have died off as well as most of the side buds. There is healthy new growth coming from the base, and there are a few brown and deformed leaves coming from low down on the old growth, but they appear dead apart from that. 2 weeks ago (mid May) there was an unusual, albeit mild, frost. Normally this time of year everything is in full swing.
So: potentially drought, or frost, or moving the plants caused them to go into some sort of survival mode. My instinct is to cut all of the old growth down so the energy of the bushes can go into the new growth. Good idea or bad idea? Any comments appreciated!

 

Hi Dominic, the one thing you haven't mentioned is where you've moved there to. I am wondering if the brown leaves are crispy and therefore in too much sun.

 

Cheers for the reply - I moved them well before Xmas from a trough into a bed - marginally sunnier but not full sun all day - not sure that would explain the health of the growth from the ground?

 

If the plant is replacing all or most of the old wood, it will often produce a lot of new, green stems in Spring.

I give my old wood a chance to leaf out but, if we get to the end of May and there are no new leaves this year, I first do a scratch test (very carefully) on the old stems to see if I "see green" or not. If not, I cut the old wood down to the ground. If there is "some green", I may or may not give it some extra time. Unfortunately for the few old wood stems that survive, they will tend to be stems that are so much longer than all of the new stems that, for aesthetic reasons, I will let them bloom (if they bloom) and then promptly prune them so their stem length is closer to that of all the other new stems. In the case of an old wood stem that has foliage at the bottom but the top dried out, you can cut it down a little now.

Maintain the soil as evenly moist as you can. Mulch them well. They should get morning sun, dappled sun but no hot afternoon/evening sun.

 

Thanks for the useful advice!