Life At Villa Boswell

October in Northern CA means it’s time to prune your hydrangeas.  Right now, my hydrangeas have maxed out on their lovely fall tones.  Here’s a shot from my "blue" garden, one in the spring, the other in the fall.  You can see how they change over the seasons. (Note: all photos are from my web album.  You can click on them to see them in larger size and zoom in on details.)

I also use sulphur granules to keep these hydrangeas blue. I have found that using sulphur granules is safer than the often-recommended application of aluminum sulphate. (I use Whitney Farms granulated sulphur in case you want to find some yourself.) Here, you can see the Nikko Blue in the pot received a slightly erratic application of the sulphur, since some of the blooms tend toward pink. 

This time of year, I re-apply the sulphur (and will do again in the early spring) as well as a little balanced fertilizer after I’ve pruned. This will stimulate new growth before the real winter sets in here.

I take all of my pruning advice from my favorite supplier of hydrangeas, hydrangeasplus.com. They have provided me with a number of great hydrangeas and you can sign up for a seasonal newsletter from the nursery, which is full of great advice, or you can just go to their website and click on the FAQ link to read up on hydrangea care.  They have a nice diagram on pruning techniques, and a good all-purpose hints-and-tips section that covers pruning and more.

"Care" for hydrangeas is required, but in my opinion these plants are the most easy going in my garden. If you don’t require blue hydrangeas, then all you need to do is provide them with regular water and filtered sunlight, and you’ve got a plant that blooms from June to October. Some hydrangeas even take more sunlight than others, and some hydrangeas even produce an additional set of blooms later in the summer.

However, if there is one tricky part to caring for hydrangeas, it’s pruning. Whack ‘em down hard, and you’ll have no blooms the subsequent year. In fact, if your hydrangea has a pleasing shape and hasn’t reached its full height yet, you’re better off just not pruning it at all. So, when you do prune, here are some things to keep in mind:

• Prune in the fall.
  Depending upon where you live, this means you should prune them during or just after their peak fall color. This gives them a little more time to get some additional growth in before winter sets in for good and the plant goes dormant.
• Leave at least 1-2 sets of "nodes" on each branch.
  These nodes represent the place where flower buds will likely develop. The more of these you have, the more blooms you will have. It’s that simple. (Also, if you only do have a few blooms, those will tend to be bigger than if you have many blooms)
• Lightly prune younger plants.
  If you feel you must prune hydrangeas that have only been in your garden 2 years or less, then just prune the top parts back slightly, to give the shrub the shape you want. I have a Nikko blue in the back of my "blue" garden that I want to grow tall, so this year, I only pruned a number of spindly lower stems in order to give the shrub a more upright shape. I left the tall stems as they were.

Ok, still not sure? Here’s some shots from my work this fall. We can check back in the spring to see how this effort paid off. First, a shot of a young hydrangea I got earlier this year.  The colored section marks the spot where I’ll prune back this young shrub, since it does look a little leggy.  I’ll cut just above the two plump buds, since those two guys will be the new side branches. (You can click on the photo and zoom in on it from my web album.)

Here’s another shot of my big hydrangea in the front, one that I want to prune a little more aggressively this time. The first shot highlights where I intended to prune, and the second shot shows the stems after pruning. In this case, each stem has two nodes, but only one node on each stem has the little leaf buds.

Here’s a shot of the entire plant, before and after pruning. This is an example of a strong pruning, but it’s not a harsh one. Notice the white plant support in the background as a measure. I’ve cut the shrub back by 50% max.

And finally, after pruning all those lovely fall blooms, my nice bouquet to show for it! 

That’s another great thing about hydrangeas; the bouquets last forever.  Just plunk them in water and they’ll go for weeks.  I’ve found that they simply dry the color that they were when you picked them.  If you are interested in drying bouquets, check out the hydrangeas plus website for more info on drying hydrangeas.