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Hydrangea question

JacquimcmahonJacquimcmahon Posts: 1,039
in Plants
Morninng everyone,

i know there are a few experts out there......

2 of my potted hydrangeas have huge flower heads to the point where there is no green showing. Now that the colour has faded should I thin them out to get light to the leaves? I’m worried any new growth is not getting enough light. My other plants have smaller heads so the leaves are getting plenty of light and seem to be growing loads of new shoots from the base.

thanks.
Marne la vallée, basically just outside Paris 🇫🇷, but definitely Scottish at heart.

Posts

  • LynLyn Posts: 23,190
    No don’t worry about that, leave the heads on they will protect the new shoots from frost in the winter. The new growth will soon be popping up above those dead heads.
    can you plant them out in the open ground, they will do so much better. 
    Gardening on the wild, windy west side of Dartmoor. 

  • JacquimcmahonJacquimcmahon Posts: 1,039
    edited August 2019
    No unfortunately I’m a terrace gardener, so pots only. Hence why I’m so envious of you huge specimens Lyn. I’ve mainly bought cultivars which are marked as compact and able to survive pots. I have all of them in large square, deep pots with nothing competing and they seem very happy, hence I presume the huge heads. I normally leave on the heads, I was just worried about how dense they are this year.
    Marne la vallée, basically just outside Paris 🇫🇷, but definitely Scottish at heart.
  • LynLyn Posts: 23,190
    If you think they are too dense, come Spring when it’s pruning time, you can cut some of the branches/stems tight off to the bottom of the plant, then just dead head and take the rest down a bud or two. 
    I would leave it for now though. 
    Gardening on the wild, windy west side of Dartmoor. 

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