Hello all,

I have two hydrangea plants outside my home in Franklin, MA. Every year
they grow larger with the leaves but never seem to bloom with flowers. Is
there something that I need to do to get the plants to bloom.

I am obviously new to gardening and these plants where there when I bought
the house. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Sandra

shaded area? do you feed compost and composted cow manure? Do you tend to
prune them in winter? Or are they left alone to grow as they will. If
you're pruning them late, you're sacrificing the blossoms. If not,
fertilize them with organic stuff and lets hope they're just coming into
their maturity. What kind do you suppose they are? Lace cap, Oakleaf, pink
or blue flowered, most of them require shade, and rich soils. and don't
prune them but right after they'd blossom which yours aren't. They flower
on old wood (except for the Oak leaf hydrangea, which flowers on the ends of
the stems)

There's always next year. So feed the plants, resist pruning and hope
they're in the right spot......eastward with dappled shade.
madgardener who has four kinds of them now
"Sandra Galvin" wrote in message
news:l3pCc.165609$Ly.104435@attbi_s01...
Hello all,

I have two hydrangea plants outside my home in Franklin, MA. Every year
they grow larger with the leaves but never seem to bloom with flowers. Is
there something that I need to do to get the plants to bloom.

I am obviously new to gardening and these plants where there when I bought
the house. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Sandra

"Sandra Galvin" expounded:

Hello all,

I have two hydrangea plants outside my home in Franklin, MA. Every year
they grow larger with the leaves but never seem to bloom with flowers. Is
there something that I need to do to get the plants to bloom.

I am obviously new to gardening and these plants where there when I bought
the house. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Sandra


Sandra, what kind of hydrangeas are they? If they're the florist
hydrangeas, then the problem is they bloom on second year growth, and
they aren't reliably hardy in our area. You need to protect them with
burlap and leaves to get them through the winter, however, last winter
nothing would have saved them.

--
Ann, Gardening in zone 6a
Just south of Boston, MA
********************************

On Wed, 23 Jun 2004 21:17:57 -0400, Ann wrote:

"Sandra Galvin" expounded:

Hello all,

I have two hydrangea plants outside my home in Franklin, MA. Every year
they grow larger with the leaves but never seem to bloom with flowers. Is
there something that I need to do to get the plants to bloom.

I am obviously new to gardening and these plants where there when I bought
the house. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Sandra


Sandra, what kind of hydrangeas are they? If they're the florist
hydrangeas, then the problem is they bloom on second year growth, and
they aren't reliably hardy in our area. You need to protect them with
burlap and leaves to get them through the winter, however, last winter
nothing would have saved them.


You are right about that! My hydrangea would not bloom, growing to 5
feet across with huge healthy leaves. Late last fall I put a chicken
wire hoop around it, filled it with leaves, removed the leaves after
the last frost date, and now it is covered with beautiful blooms. The
plant originally came from a florist.