Why didn't my hydrangea come back?
The primary reasons hydrangeas don't bloom are incorrect pruning, bud damage due to winter and/or early spring weather, location and too much fertilizer.
They must be totally submerged. Then recut and place the stems into boiling water and then back into a vase of fresh water. They should revive in a couple of hours and live another day or two or three. It takes a little extra care to have a big beautiful bouquet of hydrangeas gracing your home, but it is so worth it!
Applicable in growing zones 3 to 9, hydrangeas are a low maintenance plant that will return year after year with proper care.
Transplant Shock
Water the hydrangea deeply once a day and continue the watering routine until wilting stops and the plant looks fully revived. Also mulch around the plant to preserve soil moisture. Otherwise, give it time to recover. By no means should you fertilize it, or prune any wilted plant parts.
Instead, early summer blooming hydrangeas should be pruned back right after they complete their bloom cycle in the early summer. This allows new growth and new bloom buds to form. And by the following spring, they are ready to start powering up for big blooms.
Giving the soil a good soak with water helps restore the soil balance by dissolving the excess salts thereby, reviving your hydrangea. Keep watering your plants as per the needs to maintain the moist soil conditions for your hydrangea.
"For optimal blooms, this green-stemmed hydrangea should be pruned soon after the flowers have faded in late summer—then the shrub will have a chance to produce new growth where next year's flower buds will form," says Becker. To clean out dead stems, Becker recommends gently scratching each stem.
Reblooming Hydrangeas bloom on old wood in late spring or early summer and again in late summer on new wood. You can enjoy reblooming Hydrangeas for months longer than other varieties. Sometimes reblooming Hydrangeas don't do as well in hot climates because the heat is too much for the second bloom.
If you catch and treat your hydrangeas when their blooms first start turning brown, Myers says there's a good chance you'll be able to turn them around (as long as it's not due to weather damage). "However, once they turn fully brown, there's not much you can do," she says.
There are plenty of reasons why your hydrangeas may not be blooming as much as they once did. Conditions like extreme heat, drought, or excessive sun exposure can all impact how many flowers your shrubs produce. Pruning is also an important consideration.
Do hydrangeas need to be cut down every year?
Hydrangeas do not require strict reqular pruning; simply keep them healthy by removing dead wood and they will grow and flower well.
The reason for a dying hydrangea is usually because the soil is too dry or the hydrangea is in too much direct sunlight which causes the leaves to turn brown, wilt and die. New growth in Spring is sensitive to frost damage which causes the leaves and flower buds to turn brown and mushy with a dying appearance.
Most common hydrangeas prefer a partial sun location - ideally receiving sun in the morning hours and shade in the afternoon. The reblooming Endless Summer® Hydrangea series prefers part shade. These include BloomStruck®, Endless Summer®, Blushing Bride®, and Twist-n-Shout®.
Symptom. Leaf scorch is a common symptom of transplant shock. Leaf scorch first appears as a yellowing or bronzing of tissue between the veins or along the margins of leaves of deciduous plants (those that lose their leaves in winter). Later, the discolored tissue dries out and turns brown.
The primary reasons hydrangeas don't bloom are incorrect pruning, bud damage due to winter and/or early spring weather, location and too much fertilizer. Hydrangea varieties can be of the type that blooms on old wood, new wood or both. Old wood is the current year's growth and new wood is next year's (spring) growth.
In late winter or early spring, these shrubs can be cut all the way back to the ground. Smooth hydrangeas will produce much larger blooms if pruned hard like this each year, but many gardeners opt for smaller blooms on sturdier stems.
This common household item is surprisingly effective at helping perk up plants and brighten blooms. For hydrangeas specifically, adding baking soda helps the plant retain more moisture in the roots. When this happens, the result is bigger blooms with more vibrant colors that last longer than they would otherwise.
Transplant shock is a common side effect of moving plants. The telltale signs are wilting and falling leaves, and hydrangeas not blooming. In severe cases, your plant may not recover. 'You can minimize the risk of hydrangea transplant shock by digging up as much of the root ball and surrounding soil as possible.
The most common reason Hydrangeas get woody is weather-related. During periods of harsh winter weather, stems can become damaged. These stems die, leaving you with unsightly bare sticks in the spring and summer—a far cry from the lush shrub that you had imagined for your landscape.
Begin by removing broken, crisscrossed and diseased branches at their bases, then stand back and visualize the overall size and shape you'd like, and prune each remaining stem or branch, some long and others shorter, making each cut above an outward-facing lateral branch or bud.
Can hydrangeas get too much sun?
Too much sun exposure can cause your hydrangea shrubs to burn on its leaves and blooms. Also, be sure to put your fingers in the soil to see if it needs watering. We do recommend a soak versus light watering each day, but you should be sure that the soil is always moist – not wet – by sticking your fingers in the dirt.
According to Myers, how you deadhead your hydrangeas is every bit as important as when you do it. "Locate the first set of full-sized leaves beneath the flower, and make your cut right above it," she says. "Essentially, you're removing the faded flowers to reveal a set of healthy leaves.
Hydrangeas that bloom on old wood do not need pruning and are better off for it. If you leave them alone, they'll bloom more profusely the next season. But go ahead and gently thin or deadhead. Just remember new growth may come, but that new growth will be without blooms next season.
Once the hydrangeas have fully bounced back, return them to a vase of water and enjoy! You can repeat the reviving process as many times as you need to in order to revive your wilted hydrangeas. I had a particular stem that wilted every night, but bounced back every day for almost a week!
Late-Blooming Hydrangeas
The buds form in the spring and early summer and immediately open into blooms by late summer and through the fall. You will often hear that these hydrangeas bloom on “new wood” because they grow new wood and buds and bloom all in the same year.
Deep weekly watering is usually enough (if you don't get enough rain). Although you may need to water more often in hot, dry weather. Water hydrangeas deeply and regularly in the first growing season to encourage an extensive root system.
However, stop deadheading hydrangea shrubs in mid to late fall, leaving any spent blooms in place. This not only provides winter interest, but also ensures you don't remove the buds that will become flowers next spring.
Prune back stems to just above a fat bud — called a heading cut — in fall, late winter or spring. These plants have conical-shaped flower heads. I recommend leaving the dry, tan flower heads on the plant to provide some winter interest in your landscape, so I wait to prune these until late winter or spring.
Miracle-Gro Performance Organics Blooms Nutrition
This is an all-purpose blossom booster that's suitable for use on a wide variety of perennial and annual blooming plants, including hydrangeas.
Coffee grounds add extra acidity to the soil around hydrangeas. On a chemical level, this increased acidity makes it easier for the plant to absorb naturally occurring aluminum in the dirt. The effect is pretty blue clusters of flowers.
How do you winterize hydrangeas?
Snow cover not only provides insulation, but also a water source. If you live in an area that doesn't have snow — or doesn't get snow — make sure you've got enough rain or water to get them through. Also, be sure the base of the hydrangea is covered with wood chips, oak leaves, pine straw or other mulch.
Leaving the old flower heads on the plants will also add some interest to the winter landscape. It's best to save hydrangea pruning chores until spring or summer after plants bloom (don't worry, the new growth will soon hide any dead stems from the following year).
While some plants bloom on new growth, others primarily set flower buds on old wood. Regardless, it is best to wait to prune all hydrangeas until spring. In the fall, hydrangeas (and all trees and shrubs) are in the process of going dormant. They do not produce very much new growth until the following spring.
Small, round, brown or purplish spots on hydrangea leaves are common. Often, affected leaves turn yellowish green and fall off, although the plant usually survives. The problem is caused by a fungus that spreads via spores in wet or humid conditions.
Symptoms of overwatered hydrangeas may include brown and wilted leaves, yellow leaves that will drop from the plant, and stunted growth. Signs of root rot may present themselves as well. This could appear that half of your plant is dead, and you may see white fungus near the crown of the hydrangea.
Don't do it or you'll risk cutting off the flower buds. Pruning your hydrangeas to reduce their height isn't effective because they will grow right back to their original size, or even larger because the act of pruning stimulates new growth.
To rejuvenate the hydrangea, remove up to 1/3 of the older living stems down to the ground each summer. This will revitalize the plant. If necessary to control the size of the plant, cut back before late July to allow for buds to develop. Usually the plant will return immediately to its former size.
Later pruning will destroy flower buds developing into the next blossoms. Smooth hydrangea; Hydrangea arborescens 'Annabelle': Because of its untidy growth pattern most gardeners annually prune the entire plant to 6-12” from the ground.
Prune back stems to just above a fat bud — called a heading cut — in fall, late winter or spring.
Too much sun exposure can cause your hydrangea shrubs to burn on its leaves and blooms. Also, be sure to put your fingers in the soil to see if it needs watering. We do recommend a soak versus light watering each day, but you should be sure that the soil is always moist – not wet – by sticking your fingers in the dirt.
What does a sick hydrangea look like?
Small, round, brown or purplish spots on hydrangea leaves are common. Often, affected leaves turn yellowish green and fall off, although the plant usually survives. The problem is caused by a fungus that spreads via spores in wet or humid conditions.
6. What to do if your hydrangeas have brown flowers? Clip those toasted blooms off, snipping just under the browned flower. Removing browned petals improves the look of the plant and for re-blooming varieties helps to promote the production of more flowers.
Cut the dead stumps down to their base to completely remove them. This will allow the new growth underneath to have a chance to succeed. Dead and old blooms need to be removed to make room for new buds to come through. Cut the flower head off right above the first few leaves to encourage blooms for the next summer.
