Hello, with saxifrage i gently trim back all the long stalks after flowering by doing so it keeps them looking tidy, passion flowers, to be honest i dont dead head and when they go to seed you can get some lovely largish orange seed pods which look nice late on, apparently these can be eaten, roses, i dead head by cutting back from the fadeing flower to the next leaf axil, on my ramblers i get my shears out once they have finished flowering aprox late july, i give them a good trim and by doing so i get a second flowering which in recent years goes into november, and your Hydrangeas, you should see formation of flowers by now, some Hydrangeas are already in flower that i have seen, Is yours a new plant? is it an old plant that has been renovation pruned? as sometimes this can affect flowering, but the following year it will flower superbly, julien.

With rose bushes on the finished flower go down the stem to the next outward facing bud ( 4-6") and cut at a slant just above this this should then grow into your next bloom. You soon get the hang of this Nana. I do this to climbers to unlike ramblers where you only get the one flush. Dont worry about your hydrangeas mine never showed any signs of flowering till nearly July so may be a bit early depending on type?

Many hydrangeas have also been damaged by the Arctic winter just past. Since the flower buds on most species form in the late summer, a hard frost or heavy pruning in winter or early spring will delay flowering for a year.

Thanks everyone for your advice:) Julien my hydrangea is a really old one I cut it right back the year I moved in and last year it had lots of healthy leaves no flowers and it looks to be the same this year.

Hello, sometimes Hydrangeas when they get too big they have to be renovation pruned, similar to what you have done, i have carried this out many times and sometimes you will get flowers on the ripened wood that was made the previous year, this is expected, however i have noted on occaisions that flowering can take two/three years after this type of pruning, so i am hopefull for yours, remember hydrangeas dont really need pruning, only action that is needed is to take out dead stems and to take off the old flower heads which i always do mid april by doing so you are protecting the new emerging shoots, and then from time to time as i have mentioned then a little renovation pruning is required, julien.

Hi Julian thanks for all your advice I guess I will have to be patient perhaps it will flower next year:)