Hydrangeas Won't Bloom

Hi Homeless.

I am so sorry to hear about your hydrangeas not blooming.  There are a couple of things that can occur that will affect your hydrangeas and stop them from blooming for a season.

When you divided your hydrangea, did you trim it back?  If you pruned your hydrangea in the fall, winter or spring after or before you divided it, you may have effectively removed the buds and your plant would not produce flowers that season.

The best time to divide your hydrangea is when it is dormant or in the fall when the leaves have fallen off or in the spring before new growth appears.

When you are trimming your hydrangea, you can remove all the dead stems and prune your plant in June or July without affecting the blooms for the next year.

What type of hydrangea do you have?  What color are your blooms?  There are four common types of hydrangeas:

Mophead & Lacecap, Oakleaf, PeeGee &, Annabelle.

The 1/3 to the ground pruning method in June or July works well for the Mophead Hydrangea but may not work as well with the PeeGee (paniculatas), Annabelle (arborescens) hydrangeas.

After your hydrangea is at least 5 years old you can prune about 1/3 older living stems of the plant to reduce its size. This should be done around June or July so that it will not hurt any of next year’s blooms.  If you trim blooms in August or later for an arrangement, be sure to cut very short stems so that you do not disturb or remove any of next year’s bloom buds.

Let us know when you did your dividing and/or trimming so that we can be of further assistance. 

Rick_HD_OC

Hi again Homeless.

Can you take a picture of your hydrangeas and send it in? That may help. 

I am sure that all that moving has not been good for your hydrangea.  Water, soil acidity and available nutrients can all affect the hydrangea.  Since it has been moved so many times, the hydrangea has probably been shocked and it is remarkable that it is still alive.   You may want to try a product called SUPERthrive. This is a growth hormone for plants and can be used when you water your hydrangeas. 

SUPERthrive is used by the drop per gallon and it is not a fertilizer.  This may help to stimulate some growth and flower production in your stressed hydrangea.

If you premix the SUPERthrive, it must be used within 8 hours or it will have just evaporated off.

Keep in mind that your hydrangea needs regular watering.  Depending on your weather, this may mean watering several times a week if you have had continuous dry conditions.  Out here on the West Coast where we have relatively low humidity, our hydrangeas do best in the morning sun with afternoon shade. 

Be cautious on fertilization.  Do not over fertilize your hydrangea. Too much fertilizer may only result in lots of leaves and not many blooms.  Do not fertilize while the plant is dormant.  A good rule of thumb is to do your first fertilization in the spring or early summer.  Then just follow the package instructions after that.

Let me know how your hydrangea plant is doing.

Rick_HD_OC