By Johnpease
yorkshire,
United Kingdom 
My hydrangeas are about 3ft tall but are continuing to produce small flowers.Should I cut them right back.
21 Jul, 2011
By Johnpease
yorkshire,
United Kingdom
My hydrangeas are about 3ft tall but are continuing to produce small flowers.Should I cut them right back.
21 Jul, 2011
Nooooo!!!
If you cut them right back you won't get ANY flowers til 2013!! At least....
Just leave them be - NO PRUNING til mid March at the earliest. Then just trim off any dead flower heads, cutting off just above a pair of buds. Also remove any dead wood, and if the plant is an old one (say 5 years +) take out a few of the oldest branches at the bottom.
Hydrangeas flower on old wood, so if you want more flowers, don't prune. It's getting a bit late in the season to add fertilizer too, but if you do it soon you could give it some dilute tomato feed to build up flower buds for next year.
If you want, sprinkle a few slow release fertilizer granules around the plant next spring - I feed the whole garden with this product, I find it invaluable, but July is too late to apply it for this year. Chuck it around & rake in lightly next April.
21 Jul, 2011