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Hydrangeas

JenKentJenKent Posts: 53
in Plants
I want to cut all my hydrangeas back to the ground as they are old and I want to stimulate new growth.  Some of them have got 'leggy' and get weighed down by the blooms.   I assume I won't get any blooms in 2024 as they flower on old wood - I can put up with that as long as I end up with better shaped shrubs. If I do it before winter sets in, will the cold affect the plant? So when is the best time to do it?

Posts

  • LynLyn Posts: 23,190
    We do that every 3 or 4 years,  always in the Spring though.  
    We only cut down some,  not all at the same time so still left with some flowers. 
    It does them good and you’ll get lovely fresh green if not flowers. 
    Cut to about 6” from the ground. 
    Gardening on the wild, windy west side of Dartmoor. 

  • bcpathomebcpathome Posts: 1,313
    I wouldn’t do it till spring . If you do it now it won’t grow enough to be protected through the winter especially if the weather is like last year .
  • JenKentJenKent Posts: 53
    Thanks for your input.  I'll wait till Spring - however tempted I am to spruce up the 'scruffiness'!  If we do get any late frosts after I've pruned them back they will be slightly protected by other shrubs around them so, hopefully, any new growth from the ground will be sheltered a bit.
  • bédébédé Posts: 3,095
    LATE spring.  In Surrey we get very late, hydrangea-killing frosts.
     location: Surrey Hills, England, ex-woodland acidic sand.
    "Have nothing in your garden that you don't know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful."
  • ERICS MUMERICS MUM Posts: 627
    Even here in mild-weathered Essex I’ve been caught out by pruning hydrangeas in early spring, only for them to be badly damaged by an April frost.

    Nowadays I prune and deadhead mine at the beginning of May and they are fine.
  • LynLyn Posts: 23,190
    As the OP want to completely renovate by cutting the whole plants down,  it won’t really matter,  frost affects the new leaves and buds. 
    Gardening on the wild, windy west side of Dartmoor. 

  • bédébédé Posts: 3,095
    edited August 2023
    Having once gardened on the mild, wet, north-west side of Dartmoor, I know how benign that climate can be for Hydrangeas.  Geography is important.  In Surrey a late May, June even, frost will kill overnight any stem with rising sap.  I'm talking maculata.
     location: Surrey Hills, England, ex-woodland acidic sand.
    "Have nothing in your garden that you don't know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful."
  • LynLyn Posts: 23,190
    Rarely mild here. Nights are around 8° at the moment,  we had no summer, lots of drought unusually.  I don’t know what it’s like on the North side of the moor. 
    Gardening on the wild, windy west side of Dartmoor. 

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