Hydrangeas are valued plants in the garden. Their white, blue and pink blooms are used as fresh-cut blossoms in bouquets or as dried out accents in wreaths. But, over the years, a hydrangea bush grows big, oftentimes out of bounds. The stems get heavy, weighted down by bunches of blooms that make the vegetable droop to the bottom, after much summertime rainfall especially. Now could be the right time to grab pruners and put that bush back its place.
Hydrangea macrophylla — commonly called “mophead hydrangea” for its huge ball-shaped blooms — blossoms on development that developed the prior yr. Nikko Blue is a favorite one in this category. Lacecap hydrangeas, those frilly-looking ones with what looks like white lace around red or blue centers, belong to the macrophylla clan.
Hydrangea quercifolia — known as oakleaf hydrangea because of its oak leaf-shaped foliage — also blossoms on last year’s wood, but it seldom needs pruning. Snow Queen and Alice are brands you hear in this family often. Other hydrangeas such as PeeGee (H. Annabelle (H. arborescens) flower on new growth, and that means you can cut these to the ground now and enjoy beaucoup blooms this summer back again. Climbing hydrangea, or H. anomala, needs little, if any, pruning; snip it to control growth and shape lightly.
Then, there’s the modern-day Endless Summer, an H. macrophylla that blooms on old and new growth. It’s rather a fool-proof plant. Your old-fashioned mophead, however, requires a little tender loving treatment, so we …
