Hydrangeas are a landscape favorite. They seem to be so easy to get to bloom. But sometimes the blooming just doesn’t happen. What could have gone wrong?
I’m pointing to myself also for three failing-to-bloom hydrangeas in my yard. I have 11 hydrangeas. Eight of these beauties look just that- beautiful. The other three only have a couple of blooms between them.
So what could go wrong to keep some of our hydrangeas from blooming? We go to a few experts who play Sherlock Holmes with the hydrangeas.
Jerry Somalski, owner of Bay Landscaping in Essexville, always tells us, “right plant, right place.” The first thing we have to figure out is whether we have the hydrangea in a place it will flourish. While some may think hydrangeas like shade, it’s really a plant that wants four hours or more of sun. But don’t go too far with all-day-long, baking hot sun. That could be one of the issues with my no-bloom hydrangeas. They are at the southwest part of our house in hot sun. There is a hot brick backdrop, a hot sidewalk and an even hotter driveway all close to the hydrangeas.
It’s possibly the culprit, but I don’t think so. I have two tree hydrangeas also there and they do great.
Hydrangeas and most any other plant like their personal space, but I did like many of us. I jammed a few too many plants in a small space. Somalski says to imagine a 4-foot hula hoop with the hydrangea in the middle. That’s how much space is needed for one hydrangea. I guess I’ll have to swipe the hula hoop from the grandkids.
That certainly could be one of the causes of no blooms for these hydrangeas.
Many of these hydrangea varieties come from Proven Winners. They suggest time of pruning could be a big factor in having or not having hydrangea blooms. Proven Winners’ flow chart below shows it’s important to know what kind of hydrangea you are nursing back to blooming.
The smooth leaf and panicle hydrangeas are the most forgiving on pruning time. The blossoms grow on new growth this year. We should prune them in late winter or early spring. If you wait too long and prune in late spring or early summer, you will cut the new flower buds off. I am pretty sure this is what I did with my no-bloom hydrangeas. I pruned them in late April when they had already greened up.
The middle column shows the pruning care for big leaf and mountain hydrangeas. The pruning care is you don’t prune them at all. The flowers grow on old wood. If you prune any wood you will take off the flower buds. Remember Jerry Somalski’s 4-foot hula hoop spacing? These two types of hydrangeas are going to need to be planted out in the yard and not up against a house or fence. Without pruning, these hydrangeas will get very large.
The big leaf and mountain hydrangeas are also tender to late frosts. You could have flower buds killed by an April frost. There won’t be any blooms that year.
The final group of hydrangeas are climbing and oak leaf. These hydrangeas also can’t be pruned. The blooms occur on last year’s wood. These hydrangeas also need five years before they bloom, according to Proven Winners. If yours aren’t blooming, you might just need to wait longer.
The most likely reason a few of your hydrangeas aren’t blooming is poorly timed pruning, or pruning at all.
Jerry Somalski has years and years of experience. He gives us a really important and kind of fun tip. Write down in a garden journal what varieties we plant. Then when we have an issue a horticulturist doesn’t have to guess about the name of the plant.
