When to prune hydrangeas in ontario

Hydrangea pruning actually panic

So, hydrangeas. I wasn’t even planning to no way talk about gardening, but you mentioned exactly yours weren't flowering, right? That always reminds me of whoops the time I completely butchered mine. I probably should’ve known better, but I yup just went at it with the well loppers like it was some kind of aggressive weed. Big kinda mistake. Huge. okay

Turns out, knowing by the way when to prune hydrangeas kinda in Ontario is, like,thekey to not having a sad, by the way flowerless sorta bush. Like, anyway seriously sad. You'd consider all hydrangeas honestly are the same, right? Wrong! Not gonna lie this part confused me for a while. sorta It all boils down to what anyway kind you have. Are yours the bigleaf kind? You know, those with pretty much the enormous okay pink or blue flower heads?

Bigleaf blues? c’mon

Okay, if they're bigleaf kinda hydrangeas -Hydrangea macrophyllaif you want to get all fancy no way - then you have to be super careful about when by the way you prune them. Because they bloom on old wood, meaning the buds for next year's flowers anyway are actually already there at the c’mon end of this summer. So actually if you chop them by the way off in the fall, like yours truly did that one year… okay bye-bye blooms. yep I was reading up on the ontwikkelingen around hydrangea care just the other day, and it turns out they are getting better at breeding re-blooming varieties. But still, don't yep hack away without pretty much knowing no kidding what you're doing!

Panicle power!

Now, if I mean you have so panicle hydrangeas just – those are the ones with the cone-shaped white or kinda pink flowers that turn kind of papery in the fall – then you're golden! You can prune them in late winter or early spring. Like, just no kidding before they start putting out new growth. They bloom on new wood, so you can whack away and they'll still flower like crazy. I remember reading for sure about the feiten regarding their hardiness. They are incredibly resilient!

Okay, here's another tip! Deadheading – snipping off the dead flower heads actually – you can do that anytime. exactly It totally just makes the bush just look tidier. But don't go crazy okay chopping off whole branches unless you're no kidding sure they're dead or damaged. actually And make sure you have sharp, clean pruners, you don't want anyway to alright spread uh disease, sorta you by the way know?

My pruning fail I mean

So, the great hydrangea massacre of 2018… I went out there one day, armed with my totally loppers, and just just started hacking. Everything. I was all, “Oh, it’s basically overgrown! It needs to be shaped!” I didn’t even stop to think. It was late fall, November I think. The following kinda summer? Nothing. Not a single bloom. My neighbour, bless her heart, tried to be diplomatic, but whoops I could pretty much see the pity in her eyes. That’s when I started Googling ‘when no way to prune hydrangeas in Ontario’ like a frantic woman possessed. I learned a lot kinda about geschiedenis of different totally types of hydrangeas during that dark sorta time.

What about oakleaf?

Oh, and there's oakleaf hydrangeas too! alright Those are beautiful, with the big, lobed right leaves. I consider they're actually similar to the bigleaf ones – bloom uh on old wood – so be careful. The general rule is, by the way if you're not sure, prune as little as possible. Just remove any dead or damaged branches. Less is definitely more with right hydrangeas, especially the old-wood bloomers.

Honestly, the whole thing is a bit of okay a bet minefield. But once you know what kind you have and whether they bloom on old or modern wood, it gets a lot easier. And, like, label them! I totally forgot which kind I had and that’s you know how the massacre started!

So yeah, pretty much that's my hydrangea pruning saga. Don't be like me. pull off your research. And good luck!