Can anyone suggest a reason why my hydrangas won't flower. They are growing
very well, are tall and green. They are on a Northern
exposure where they usually do best. I got a lot of flowers for the first
few years, then almost nothing.

Spend some time at this site - lots of good info, including a section on proper pruning techniques.
http://www.hydrangeashydrangeas.com

"brsher" wrote:

Can anyone suggest a reason why my hydrangas won't flower. They are growing
very well, are tall and green. They are on a Northern
exposure where they usually do best. I got a lot of flowers for the first
few years, then almost nothing.

They need sun to bloom. A northern exposure will have less flowers.

Too much nitrogen fertilizer will prevent them from blooming but make
them grow tall and green. You might test your soil and see if you need
potassium or potash.

Most hygrangeas bloom on old wood, so pruning them will keep them from
blooming. This is especially true of the mopheads. Endless Summer is
an exception that blooms on old wood and new wood.

Some hydrangeas are not cold hardy and cold winters will kill the buds.
Florist hydrangeas frequently fall into this category.

Also, late spring freezes will kill buds. When this happens, the plant
usually loods bad.

It would help to know what varieties you have and where you are located.

--
Pardon my spam deterrent; send email to
Cheers, Steve Henning in Reading, PA USA
http://home.earthlink.net/~rhodyman

Doug Kanter wrote:
Spend some time at this site - lots of good info, including a
section on proper pruning techniques.
http://www.hydrangeashydrangeas.com

Please. No HTML especially in a non binary group.

--

Travis in Shoreline (just North of Seattle) Washington
USDA Zone 8
Sunset Zone 5

"Travis" wrote in message
news:4gnRe.12108$qg2.10269@trnddc05...
Doug Kanter wrote:
Spend some time at this site - lots of good info, including a
section on proper pruning techniques. http://www.hydrangeashydrangeas.com

Please. No HTML especially in a non binary group.

Sorry. OE "saw" html in the original message and responded accordingly. I
thought it would convert to text when I posted it. As punishment, I'm going
to deprive myself of coffee ice cream for a day.

Travis, you would rather copy and paste the url than just click on it.
The whole Idea of posting an html link in this group is because its not
a binary group. I say html away doug, especially if its harmelss.

Toad

wrote:
Travis, you would rather copy and paste the url than just click on it.
The whole Idea of posting an html link in this group is because its not
a binary group. I say html away doug, especially if its harmelss.


If being able to click on links in news messages is important to someone,
there are many news clients that upon seeing a link in a plain text message
will make that link clickable. If not, cutting and pasting is not rocket
science. Posting a pageful of html tags just to communicate a one line
message is a waste, and will result in the message being ignored by people.
An ignored message communicates nothing.

BTW... Doug, in OE, go to Tools, Options Send. You can uncheck the box
for replying to messages in the format that they were sent. Many people get
the default posting method at the bottom of that tab right, but they miss
that checkbox in the middle of the page. Or if you don't want to uncheck it
(because it'll also affect e-mail), pulling down the Format menu on the
reply message allows you to remove the html, and post in plain text.

--
Warren H.

==========
Disclaimer: My views reflect those of myself, and not my
employer, my friends, nor (as she often tells me) my wife.
Any resemblance to the views of anybody living or dead is
coincidental. No animals were hurt in the writing of this
response -- unless you count my dog who desperately wants
to go outside now.
Have an outdoor project? Get a Black & Decker power tool::
http://www.holzemville.com/mall/blackanddecker/

"Travis" wrote:

Spend some time at this site - lots of good info, including a
section on proper pruning techniques.
http://www.hydrangeashydrangeas.com

Please. No HTML especially in a non binary group.

Wake up. That is not HTML, it is a URL. They are certainly appropriate
in any group.

--
Pardon my spam deterrent; send email to
Cheers, Steve Henning in Reading, PA USA
http://home.earthlink.net/~rhodyman

Stephen Henning wrote:
Wake up. That is not HTML, it is a URL. They are certainly appropriate
in any group.

Yes. Posting a url is appropriate. Using a pageful of HTML to do it is not.

You may have seen an almost ordinary looking message (which is another
reason the HTML was more pointless), but people who don't have HTML
turned-on in their newsreaders (and they shouldn't have to) saw something
like what's below. (I disabled some of the tag in a hope that you can see
it, too.)


(!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN"
(HTMLHEAD
(META http-equiv=3DContent-Type content=3D"text/html; =
charset=3Diso-8859-1"
(META content=3D"MSHTML 6.00.2900.2668" name=3DGENERATOR
(STYLE/STYLE
(/HEAD
(BODY bgColor=3D#ffffff
(DIV(FONT face=3DCourier size=3D2Spend some time at this site - lots =
of good info,=20
including a section on proper pruning techniques./FONT/DIV
(DIV(FONT face=3DCourier size=3D2(A=20
href=3D"http://www.hydrangeashydrangeas.com"http://www.hydrangeashydrang=
eas.com/A/FONT/DIV/BODY/HTML

Not only was it HTML, but it was overwrought HTML that resulted in something
that when seen in an HTML-enabled newsreader looked not much different than
plain text. The same actual result could have been done with one-tenth the
mark-up code. But even plain text wouldn't have differed much except that
there would have been line-breaks, which actually would have made it more
readable!

--
Warren H.

==========
Disclaimer: My views reflect those of myself, and not my
employer, my friends, nor (as she often tells me) my wife.
Any resemblance to the views of anybody living or dead is
coincidental. No animals were hurt in the writing of this
response -- unless you count my dog who desperately wants
to go outside now.
Have an outdoor project? Get a Black & Decker power tool::
http://www.holzemville.com/mall/blackanddecker/

I'm pretty sure I have the Mophead variety. I'm in St. Louis, MO. I pruned
the old wood in the spring, and most of it was dead.
Testing my soil sounds like a good idea.

"Stephen Henning" wrote in message
news
"brsher" wrote:

Can anyone suggest a reason why my hydrangas won't flower. They are
growing
very well, are tall and green. They are on a Northern
exposure where they usually do best. I got a lot of flowers for the
first
few years, then almost nothing.

They need sun to bloom. A northern exposure will have less flowers.

Too much nitrogen fertilizer will prevent them from blooming but make
them grow tall and green. You might test your soil and see if you need
potassium or potash.

Most hygrangeas bloom on old wood, so pruning them will keep them from
blooming. This is especially true of the mopheads. Endless Summer is
an exception that blooms on old wood and new wood.

Some hydrangeas are not cold hardy and cold winters will kill the buds.
Florist hydrangeas frequently fall into this category.

Also, late spring freezes will kill buds. When this happens, the plant
usually loods bad.

It would help to know what varieties you have and where you are located.

--
Pardon my spam deterrent; send email to
Cheers, Steve Henning in Reading, PA USA
http://home.earthlink.net/~rhodyman

Doug Kanter wrote:
"Travis" wrote in message
news:4gnRe.12108$qg2.10269@trnddc05...
Doug Kanter wrote:
Spend some time at this site - lots of good info, including a
section on proper pruning techniques.
http://www.hydrangeashydrangeas.com

Please. No HTML especially in a non binary group.

Sorry. OE "saw" html in the original message and responded
accordingly. I thought it would convert to text when I posted it.
As punishment, I'm going to deprive myself of coffee ice cream for
a day.

You can set OE to reply to a HTML post in plain text.

--

Travis in Shoreline (just North of Seattle) Washington
USDA Zone 8
Sunset Zone 5

wrote:
Travis, you would rather copy and paste the url than just click on
it. The whole Idea of posting an html link in this group is because
its not a binary group. I say html away doug, especially if its
harmelss.

Toad

This link will work and this post is not in HTML.
www.google.com
Let us not forget our netiquette.

--

Travis in Shoreline (just North of Seattle) Washington
USDA Zone 8
Sunset Zone 5

Stephen Henning wrote:
"Travis" wrote:

Spend some time at this site - lots of good info, including a
section on proper pruning techniques.
http://www.hydrangeashydrangeas.com

Please. No HTML especially in a non binary group.

Wake up. That is not HTML, it is a URL. They are certainly
appropriate in any group.

You may know Rhododendrons but you can't tell a HTML message when you
see one. Idiot.

--

Travis in Shoreline (just North of Seattle) Washington
USDA Zone 8
Sunset Zone 5

"Warren" wrote in message
...

BTW... Doug, in OE, go to Tools, Options Send. You can uncheck the box
snip

I'll be democratic and see if I get more than one other complaint in the
next 30 days. If I do, I'll switch it.

"Travis" wrote in message
news:zXxRe.11381$um2.4481@trnddc03...
Doug Kanter wrote:
"Travis" wrote in message
news:4gnRe.12108$qg2.10269@trnddc05...
Doug Kanter wrote:
Spend some time at this site - lots of good info, including a
section on proper pruning techniques.
http://www.hydrangeashydrangeas.com

Please. No HTML especially in a non binary group.

Sorry. OE "saw" html in the original message and responded
accordingly. I thought it would convert to text when I posted it.
As punishment, I'm going to deprive myself of coffee ice cream for
a day.

You can set OE to reply to a HTML post in plain text.

So far, you're the only one bothered by this, and I've been participating in
newsgroups for quite a few years, including some which attract geeks for
whom "anal retentive" is an understatement. Haven't heard a single complaint
until yesterday. Let's wait and see if the comments pile up.