Category: Hydrangeas

How to Prune Hydrangeas and Roses

julia erickson3 Comments

As a clarification to yesterday’s post on pruning shrubs, you only want to cut back the hydrangeas that grow on new wood. If you cut back the hydrangeas that grow on old wood, you’ll be cutting off this year’s flowers.
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For information on pruning hydrangeas that grow on old wood, check out this post:

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For those of you who asked about pruning roses, check out these posts:

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How and When to Prune Caryopteris, Spirea, Butterfly Bush, Pee Gee Hydrangea, Annabelle Hydrangea, Smokebush, Elderberry

julia erickson5 Comments

After the “in like a lion” March first snow, we were blessed with “out like a lamb” seventy-degree spring weather this weekend. The whole family spent every waking minute outside and I took the opportunity to do some of my late winter shrub pruning. In my zone (6b), early March is the perfect time to prune the shrubs that are grown either for (i) flowers that bloom on new wood or (ii) foliage that is more vibrant on new wood.
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Some of the shrubs that I grow for flowers that bloom on new wood include caryopteris, spirea (pictured below), butterfly bush, pee gee hydrangea (pictured below) and annabelle hydrgangea. Some of the shrubs that I grow for foliage that is more vibrant on new wood includes smokebush (pictured below) and elderberry (or sambucas). As you can see in the pictures below, you can really cut these shrubs back significantly and by doing so, you will be rewarded with a greater number of blooms on your flowering shrubs and more vibrant color for your foliage shrubs.
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Does pruning these shrubs really make a difference? Yes! Last year, I cut back only some of the spirea and the difference between the pruned and unpruned was quite noticeable.

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Spirea before pruning
Spirea after pruning
Pee gee hydrangea after pruning
Smokebush after pruning

"Put the Pruners Down and Step Away": Autumn is not the Time to be Pruning your Roses and Hydrangeas

julia erickson5 Comments

As a relatively new blogger, I’m still learning about all of the different blogging tools available. On Google Analytics, I’ve just figured out how to look at the keywords and web pages that visitors to my blog have been searching and reading.
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Much to my surprise, I’ve recently attracted a lot of traffic to my prior posts on pruning roses and hydrangeas. My advice? Wait until late winter/early spring. I do absolutely no pruning of hydrangeas at this time of year and the only pruning of roses that I do is either of completely dead wood or canes that have grown so tall that they are likely to break in the winter winds and damage the rest of the plant. For more information, click below:
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Hydrangeas: Why and How to Prune
How to Prune Roses, Part I: An Introduction
How to Prune Roses, Part II: Old Rose Pruning Secrets
How to Prune Roses, Part III: Why Prune?