On Jan 12, 1:26*pm, Janet wrote:
In article ,
says...
. I

have no trouble propagating my mopheads, but how do you get them to
flower every year? Mine go beserk for one summer, then take a year off
before flowering again the following year. Is that normal?
Also, I need to keep them under control in a small garden.

*Hydrangeas make their flower buds a year in advance. To have flowers
every year, you have to always retain some of last years growth.
Probably you have inadvertently pruned off next years flower buds in an
attempt to keep the plant small.

* GC's often sell compact pots of mopheads in full flower on short
stems. *To produce that very saleable appeal they were grown under very
artificial conditions, probably with hormone growth restrictions.
Huge flowers on a small potted plant in a GC, are a bit like huge feet
on a *puppy...

* * Janet.

If I spread bone meal around anything here then it would be destroyed
in a night or two by foxes looking for the food they could smell.
Last night we had a fox calling just outside the back door, I was
waiting for it to stick its head through the cat flap
David