Hydrangeas

Last year I had two "bushes" that produces a few floers, but not many. I think I have tracked themdown finally: Hydrangeas - the bushes are about 4 foot in diameter. Some places I am reading that I should not trim them back - some say you can trim them a little. Last year the bushes/flowers were very sparse - maybe 10 blooms (and that might be generous) on the whole 4 foot ball, and the green leaves were also sparse.

Has the hyrangea lived past its prime? Any tips?

You should prune hydrangeas after flowering, or in the spring. Have you tested your soil? You may be able to get a soil testing kit to do this (in this country they are about £1.50). Hydrangeas tend to do better on neutral to slightly acid soil, also if the soil is moist it's good for them (so a good mulch with rotted manure would probably help if your soil tends to be dry. This would also provide some essential nutrients so if you haven't 'fed' your soil, this could be the answer).

Hydrangeas count as shrubs, so should last for many years. You don't say how long you have had these, but if they are young shrubs they may be just taking their time getting started with the flowers, or maybe they were pruned too hard (when we had our house painted, the climbing hydrangea was cut right down to the ground. It's taken several years to come back in all its glory). Have you had a cold winter? Extreme cold can affect them.

They are superb shrubs (in my opinion) and would be worth keeping if you can get them to perform properly. Hopefully you will!

Sue

When I was in Connecticut I saw hydrangeas that were quite a bit taller than me and probably 8' wide. Here in Florida they are just potted plants that don't live very long. I still love them though!

Not sure how old they are - I just bought the house last year - the house though is only 12 years old, so most likely no older than that. I'll be sure to get themmulched and fertilized this year - hopefully that will help!

Here's a link to the Royal Horticultural Society and a page on Hydrangeas - although they do have other kinds of hydrangea on the site. It tells you a bit about pruning. Especially that they plant may flower on last year's wood, so pruning may have removed the ability to flower this year.


http://www.rhs.org.uk/rhsplantselect...?plantid=45229

Thanks for reminding me, Talon. I asked for a hydrangea for Easter and I never got one. I think I'll bring that up when I get home tonight!

Thanks for the link, I will have to read that. Good thing I haven't pruned it yet!