Why Doesn’t My Hydrangea Bloom?

Comments

1. Jamie Jamison Adams says:

   October 11, 2007 at 12:52 pm

   D.,

   Blooming can be limited by a few factors:

   1. Lack of proper nutrients.
   2. Lack of proper light
   3. Improper pruning.

   First, check the type of fertilizer you are using and make sure that it contains a fair amount of phosphorus. Plants need phosphorus to produce a bloom. Not only do they need to be feed with a proper fertilizer, they need to be feed at the correct time. I fertilize my hydrangeas when they are producing the bloom and little at the time of blooming. This will depend on the type of hydrangea you have.

   Second, the amount of light your hydrangea gets is important. I plant a hydrangea once in a shady location, after all hydrangea can take part shade and in my climate often prefer it. However, my area was a little to shady. I had the most beautiful green foliage and no blooms. After a few years, I move the hydrangea to a slightly sunny spot and bang — I had blooms.

   The final factor is probably the one that gets the most people — improper pruning. There is a right time and a wrong time to prune hydrangeas and it depends on what type they are. For example Hydrangea macrophylla blooms on the current season’s wood (words new growth), is deciduous and blooms from mid-late summer to autumn . With this type of hydrangea, pruning is usually the cause of non-blooming and should be done in early or mid spring. However, hydrangea that bloom on previous or current wood need very little pruning and are affected greatly by improper pruning. Pruning should be done in late winter of early spring while the plant is dormant. If you have a Hydrangea paniculata, you can prune the plant back to it’s “low permanent” framework (similar to hybrid tea rose pruning). This should be done annually at bud swell — usually in early spring.