On 19/1/08 12:30, in article , "Stuart
Noble" wrote:

Bob Hobden wrote:
"MikeCT" wrote
"Stuart Noble" wrote:
There seems to be a lot of conflicting advice about winter pruning of
mophead hydrangeas. Am I right in thinking that cutting all the stems
back by half in Feb will mean no blooms this year? Do the flowers only
form at the ends of last year's stems?
Confused. Thanks for any advice
Last years flower heads should be removed during late March and early
April, after any spring frost.
Dead-head by cutting away last years blooms together with the
flowering stalk down to the uppermost pair of new buds.
If your dead-headed hydrangeas are frost damaged after pruning,
just remove any blackened growth down to the next pair
of healthy buds and don't worry, your plants will recover.

I agree, don't prune until the hard frosts are over as the dead flower heads
protect the buds. Then you can prune back to any buds showing signs of
growth. I want mine to be restricted so prune hard.


Thanks for the replies
But do they flower the same year when you hard prune?
Mike says prune to the "uppermost pair of new buds". I would like to
prune to a lower pair, but not at the risk of losing this year's flowers.


One way of dealing with hydrangeas is to do a bit each year so that you
always have some flowers on each bush. So take out half or a third this
year, depending on the size of your shrub, then ditto next year and so on.
You want to achieve a globe shape, eliminate weak and crossing stems etc.
I was certainly taught not to prune or deadhead until the danger of frost is
passed but OTOH, I used to hack my hydrangeas back when the mood took me and
they always flowered perfectly happily. That was in a very mild climate,
though, which might make the difference. Start cautiously and then see how
they get on this summer, do a bit more next year and so forth.

--
Sacha
http://www.hillhousenursery.co.uk
South Devon
(remove weeds from address)
'We do not inherit the earth from our ancestors, we borrow it from our
children.'