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When to prune unruly mop head hydrangea

EmerionEmerion Posts: 599
edited 3 January in Problem solving
We have a mop head hydrangea which wants to be huge, but has been planted in a place where it interferes with the opening of a gate. As it’s huge I can’t  face moving it - particularly as its roots will be mixed up with those of its neighbour, a Russian lilac. Advice for this type is always to prune in late summer or early autumn so that there will be flowers next year. But then there will be no flowers this year! So I always end up leaving it, and we are back to struggling with the gate. With a shrub in the wrong place like this, would you just resign yourself to flowers every other year, and cut it very hard back next late summer? If I succumb to temptation and cut it back now, will it survive the winter? Is there a better way?
Carmarthenshire (mild, wet, windy). Loam over shale, very slightly sloping, so free draining. Mildly acidic or neutral.


Posts

  • Lizzie27Lizzie27 Posts: 12,494
    @Emerion, you just need to cut back to the ground the shoots that impede the opening of the gate and leave the rest to be pruned at the correct time. I prune back the old flower heads in spring when the worst of the frosts are over and also just cut out any overlarge branches that impede our path between the garage and the raised bed. It doesn't seem to harm the plant at all and ours must be at least 20 years old or more.
    North East Somerset - Clay soil over limestone
  • bcpathomebcpathome Posts: 1,313
    Yes I do that too . Seems to work ok .
  • PlantmindedPlantminded Posts: 3,580
    You could also selectively reduce about a third of the stems to ground level to open the shrub up, allowing the others that remain unpruned to flower this year. If you do this every year you will still get flowers from the unpruned stems, plus fresh growth, if you want it!


    Wirral. Sandy, free draining soil.


  • ViewAheadViewAhead Posts: 866
    Hydrangeas tend to have a very shallow root system, in my experience, so moving it may not be an onerous as you think.  I would cut it back to the very bottom buds just as these are developing, dig it up, transport it to a better place, and then water it well all yr.  
  • ViewAheadViewAhead Posts: 866
    Or ... hydrangeas are easy to grow from cuttings.  Around July, take a non-flowering side-shoot with very tiny leaves in the centre, cut it off below the next bud (about a 4" piece is fine), remove the larger leaves just leaving the tiny ones, pot up in general purpose compost, put it in a cool, light place out of direct sunlight, and in a couple of weeks, it should root. 
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