Learn how to prune your Hydrangea macrophylla, which includes mophead and lacecap varieties. In this short, easy to follow video Tobey Nelson CPH teaches us all the basics of yearly pruning for these gorgeous shrubs.
I have several back of my home and I haven't been physically Abe to do anything for a few years! Shall I cut off more of the old wood in order to keep the plants more uniform??
Thank you. This was very helpful. I moved to my home last year and there are several hydrangeas. One being a HUGE overgrown lace cap and I’ve already spent an hour working on it today with still more cleanup to do tomorrow.
This is a great instruction because I live in i Sequim and we have the same season and weather conditions. It is the middle of October. I just started taking care of a mophead that is super happy with an abundance of blooms. But it is getting to large for its space and I need to reduce its height and width. The owner is very happy and proud of it and I am agonizing over making sure I dont prune it incorrectly and lose blooms for next year. I wish the decreasing had been done sooner to go over the three thinnig process but I'm stuck with the problem now. The owner is a little 93 year old lady that I'm afraid won't live long enough to see it through a three year cycle. I want her to hopefully see it one more year with a bush full of big flowers.😢
THE most helpful concise video on how to prune a lace cap. I actually understand what to do, thank you so much. Could you please do one for Annabelle hydrangea?
Great video and very informative. I need to reduce the size of my mophead hydrangea. It is way to big. Do I cut it at the lowest new bud? If there are no new buds on the branch should I simply cut out the branch completely? Thank you so much
I would beware of cutting too much; since pruning encourages vigor, you may trigger the plant to put on more, tall growth. I would do a combo of heading some, and completely thinning the tallest branches, up to removing no more than one fourth to one third of the overall plant.
When you headed back the branch that had the two tall stems (the one that had been headed back the previous year thus giving rise to those two tallest stems 8:04), I would have rather cut that branch all the way down, given as heading it back is likely to create very tall stems?
Pruner's choice! The key is understanding what will happen and what fits your desired outcome. In my experience, if the branches you are cutting to are already growing, they don't respond with as much vigor as if we had headed back to simply buds. Which is to say, I don't expect the branches we cut to will likely leap and get taller. But you could definitely have also thinned the whole cane. Thanks for your question and comment!
