I love love love hydrangeas with their bright green leaves and beautiful globes of flowers in white, gorgeous blues, and fuchsia pinks. Hydrangeas can bloom all summer long and add a romantic cozy cottage feel to any landscape. The beautiful flowers last forever in your favorite vase too! Although hydrangeas may seem tricky to grow and maintain, they are actually quite easy to care for if you know the right tricks. I hope you enjoy this post on how I get my hydrangeas to bloom all summer!
Planting your hydrangeas
The best time of year to plant your hydrangeas is Fall or the early Spring. We want to give our plants time to establish their roots. You want to avoid planting in Summer when the temperatures are too high. Most Hydrangeas will do great in fertile, sandy soil and partial sun. The best choice is to plant where your hydrangeas will get morning sun and shade in the afternoon.
You want to dig a hole about two feet deep or four times the depth of the roots. Keeping your hydrangeas about four feet apart from each other gives them room to spread and grow. Once they are in the ground we want to establish the roots. The best way to do this is to lay your hose right at the root. Let the water trickle at a very gentle pace, making sure to not flood the plant. Do this for about 5-10 minutes per plant, once a week for the first three months until the roots have been established.
Watering your hydrangeas
For already established plants Hydrangeas need about one inch of water per week. So if its very dry and hot outside water them in the morning to prevent wilting. Also add organic mulch underneath your hydrangeas, it will keep your soil moist and cool.
Pruning your hydrangeas.
Here is my advice. … don’t !
The most common types of hydrangeas grow on old wood. Old wood means that the bud of next years plants are in the wood stem, so don’t cut them back or you run the risk of cutting off your bud for next year! Hydrangeas that grow on old wood are …
- Oakleaf hydrangeas (H. quercifolia)
- Bigleaf hydrangeas (H. macrophylla)
- Mountain hydrangeas (H. serrata)
- Climbing hydrangeas (H. petiolaris)
Buds that grow on new wood can be trimmed back and they include :
- Smooth hydrangeas (H. arborescens)
- Panicle hydrangeas (H. paniculata)
You can feel free to trim the flowers off your plants to enjoy in vases inside the home but try not to cut them off after August 1st. Doing so runs the risk of cutting off the bud for the new year!!
If your second guessing yourself it is best to just leave your hydrangeas alone. Just give them lots of love and feed them !!
Feeding your hydrangeas.
This here is the best trick! Hydrangeas love to be fertilized twice a year. Once in the early spring and once in the fall. I love to use organic Hollytone. This product will give your hydrangeas everything they need to bloom big and bright. Watch the video down below to see how to apply the Hollytone.
What to do come Fall :
Come the fall your flowers will start to brown. Don’t worry, and try and resist cutting them off. You might trim off that new growth for the following year. Just let them dry up and then go and crush the flower in your hand and it should just fall off. My kids love to do this! Your hydrangeas should just go dormant for the winter. If you live in an area with very harsh winter you can wrap your plants in burlap for the winter months to further protect them.
I hope you find as much joy in your hydrangeas as I do and hopefully you learned about hydrangea care and getting them to bloom every year. Leave a comment below on how you like to care for them, or better yet, leave me a photo of your beautiful hydrangeas !!
