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Lanarkshire, United Kingdom Gb

Hydrangea- When & how do I prune? I have one in particular that badly encroaches azalea either side of it and badly overlaps the front lawn! (Got to prop it up to mow.)




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Because you are in Scotland, as I am, I would advise against pruning your Hydrangea until next year when the danger of all frost is past.
Basically you can prune back the shoots which have flowered this year. If you leave the flowerheads on, you will know which these are. If you prune this year's new growth you will sacrifice next year's flowers.
Over the years I have lost a couple of mature hydrangeas to frost because of early enthusiastic pruning, so I resist the temptation nowadays and leave them till spring.

31 Aug, 2011

 

Yes agree with ojibway93, if you want to greatly reduce them then you can, eg here for you, three very large hydrangea macrophylias, hard pruned to aprox two foot from the ground, all old stems cut further down, this action was carried out march 10, plenty of healthy shoots put up, this year they flowered very well.

31 Aug, 2011

 

I always leave my hydrangeas until at least beginning of April and I live in the southeast.They all survived last years winter. The flower heads look lovely frosted and it seems to keep them healthy. It is also as previously stated that it is easier to see wher to trim next year. I have found that some of my hydrangeas flower alternate years. I dont know why this is as i am always careful to prune just above an emerging bud! I wonder if anyone else has found this! There is a pic of mine in my photo named my bit of old fashioned. Hope this helps

31 Aug, 2011

 

Thank you all for your extensive answers! I will leave them until April & prune quite hard....

1 Sep, 2011

How do I say thanks?

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