Home - Garden
Keep Your Hydrangeas Blooming Every Year With These Genius Tips
By BRANDY EAKLOR
Choose The Right Variety
With over 70 hydrangea varieties, you can choose from vining or shrub types. Opt for re-blooming varieties for flowers throughout the season.
Generally speaking, hydrangeas prefer a location that receives partial shade or filtered sun. Most like shade in the hot afternoons, but some varieties like more sun than others.
Avoid Gift Wrapped Plants
Avoid planting gift-wrapped hydrangeas, as they have a low chance of re-blooming and have likely been over-fertilized and forced into early blooms.
Purchase your hydrangeas from the gardening section, and ensure they don’t have brown roots, as this can indicate health issues. The best time to plant them is in late spring.
Proper Nutrition
To boost hydrangea blooms, use well-drained, organically rich soil. Alkaline, acidic, and neutral soils can produce pink, blue, and purple flowers, respectively.
As for the fertilizers, high phosphorus ones will boost blooms, while nitrogen-rich ones will promote leaf and stem growth. If the soil is nutrient-rich, avoid over-fertilizing.
Water Them Properly
Hydrangeas need plenty of water. The best method is to water deeply enough to reach the roots, ensuring you do so at the right time of day and in the right spot.
Water on leaves and blooms can harness the sun and cause burns, so aim to water your hydrangeas early in the morning. Avoid overhead watering, as it can cause fungal diseases.
Prune Correctly
You should prune old wood hydrangeas immediately after they bloom. This allows the plant to work on growth that will become old wood for the next season.
New wood varieties develop buds on the current season's growth and need pruning in late winter or early spring. Knowing the type of hydrangea you have is the key to proper pruning.