Hydrangea gone bonkers?
Kate C
Posts: 17
Can anyone tell me what my lace-capped hydrangea is doing please?
Over the summer it's grown some very long slim branches that are growing more or less upward out of the top. They vary in length but are roughly between 18 and 24 inches. The leaves don't seem to match properly with the rest of the shrub but they are growing from a main stem.
I had one or two last year but just cut them off as I thought they might be some sort of sucker and there are now 12+ of them looking like a row of antennas sticking up.
I thought of just cutting them all off like last year but wonder if that would just encourage more of them to grow next year. Does anyone know why this is happening?
PS Actually the birds quite like them as they sit on them swaying happily in the breeze and I don't dislike them myself really it's just that I'm curious as to why this has happened and if it has any meaning in the life of the shrub.
Posts
A picture might assist. I wonder if it's just the new growth for next year's flower and the slight difference in leaf is because it's new vigorous growth?
H-C
Thank you for your reply H-C.
I have attached a photo for you to have a look at as you suggested.
The long stems don't look like hydrangea to me - hydrangea leaves grow in pairs, those appear to be growing alternately.
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
Yes you're right about the leaves growing alternately. I've just been to examine exactly where these stems start from and they are definitely coming from the main stems of the hydrangea. It just seems so odd to me.
I think that's a different shrub, despite what you say. The stems and leaves look very different, quite apart from the fact that, as pointed out, the leaves are alternate. Those stems are too grey. Hydrangeas of that sort have green or dark, glabrous stems
H-C
They look like Cotoneaster lacteus to me - often appearing as seedlings in gardens sown via the droppings of berry-eating birds - a seed could have fallen into the dense middle of that hydrangea and grown there.
Does the stem they're coming from actually have hydrangea leaves on it?
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
I agree with Dove. Cotoneaster seedlings appear throughout my garden.
I agree with Dove and Joyce as they look like cotoneaster to me too.
We have large several bushes and the birds love the berries. So we get lots of seedlings which come up all over the place often in the middle of other plants.
I've delved down to the bottom of the hydrangea and have found that there's one stem right in the centre which goes up, branches out, and these long stems are all coming from that. There didn't appear to be any visual difference between the stems at the base though, but perhaps down there there wouldn't be and they'd all just look kind of brown/grey anyway.
I've also looked at pictures of the cotoneaster lacteus and there's a definite resemblance but I've never had white flowers and there's no sign of any berries appearing and the back of my leaves are green and veiny pretty much like the hydrangeas, only smaller.
However, I am now wondering if you could be right about this.
But the question remains as to what to do about it.
If I leave it will it just take over the hydrangea, eventually killing it? Should I just cut it all out which seems to be a shame as it's gone to all the trouble to grow in the first place. Plus it looks to be a very nice shrub which the birds would enjoy. Or should I dig the whole thing up and try to separate it, which might not be easy or even possible?
Many thanks to you all for helping me with this, I do appreciate it, particularly as we live in an area where gardening can be pretty challenging at times and every plant is important.
I'm not sure if your infiltrator is Cotoneaster lacteus, the leaves look a bit too short and wide to me, but it's definitely a cotoneaster of some sort.
As it's already taller than the hydrangea I think you can assume it will swamp it given a chance. You won't get flowers and berries if you keep cutting it back.
I don't think you can get the best from both shrubs without digging up both and pulling them apart.
In the sticks near Peterborough