Hi. I've recently moved to Victoria (from the prairies) and have numerous Hydrangea in the front garden, all of the same variety, I think. I have no idea how to prune them, but most on-line information on pruning Hydrangea speaks of different techniques for different varieties of Hydrangea. Can anyone suggest good ways to ID what I have? Right now, I'm mostly interested in determining whether the variety I have blooms on new wood or last year's wood. Many thanks (and probably many more questions to come if this works out!) Richard
Hello yfret, I suggest you take photos of your plants and post them here on the Plant ID forum. Some of the members are very good at plant ID. Try to get close shots of plant parts and a general habit shot of the plants.
Thanks, Eric, for the suggestion about pics. Unfortunately, Life and Such has kept little from happening in the Hydrangea world! Identifying the species/variety will have to wait. I have, nevertheless, managed to determine that for my Hydrangea, the flowers come on new wood. That was fairly clear from looking at the stems. I have pruned back the plant about as much as I need to for space/aesthetic requirements, and cut off most of the spent blooms. Now that the proverbial horse is running loose, I thought I might check to see that I understood how the barn door closes.... I have cut off the spent bloom and some 8-18" of the stem from which it grew, always cutting just above what appears to be two buds. I assumed those buds are where new flowers would appear. Now I am re-thinking. Maybe those are not FLOWER buds but buds where new leaf vegetation will form? For example, in the attached pic with the spent bloom, I would have cut the stem just above the two buds toward the bottom of the pic -- NOT above the two leaves that grow a few inches below the flower. The same is true on the pic of the stem only -- I cut everything off just above the two buds that grow an inch or so above the bottom of the picture frame. On many stems, I could have cut off many emerging buds had I cut the stem closer to the ground, but I was thinking that would reduce the number of blooms I will have next year. AM I ON THE RIGHT TRACK? Or am I only pruning this Hydrangea as one might prune any non-flowering shrub? Thanks for any help.
