I purchased a new/starter hydrangea plant this spring. Zone 4 - it is getting quite tall and lots of leaves but I see no sign of any blooms......should I cut it back or what am I doing wrong......? Any help would be appreciated.
some varieties bloom on old wood and others on new wood. they all need at least a year to get established enough - good roots going - before they'll bloom. sometimes, they're forced into bloom and sold in spring...those either have decent roots and have enough old wood to have blooms or just have more well-established roots to be able to do the blooming on the new wood. when transplanted, they can take a good year (and sometimes two) to get fully re-established and they may or may not bloom. i would let it be - no trimming of anything in case it's one that blooms on old wood - and see how it grows and if it blooms next year. may take an additional year also, since you're in zone 4... here in zone 6b, it took a year for it to bloom (mines a new wood bloomer) and it was a good 5 years before there was enough growth to have more than a handful of flowers. now it puts on a really nice show with an abundance of flowers all over it. patience :) do you happen to know which variety it is??
Many hydrangeas only bloom on what is called old wood -- i.e., the previous year's growth. So you should refrain from pruning this year, and wait to see if blooms appear next summer on this year's stems. It's also not unusual for shrubby plants to take a year or more to settle into their new growing environments before they start putting on a good display of flowering. Sometimes gardeners (unintentionally) encourage this delay by pampering the new plant with abundant water and fertilizer, which may have the effect of stimulating lush foliar growth at the expense of flower production. You're almost certainly not doing anything wrong. Your hydrangea will put on a kick-butt display next year. In gardening, it's all about next year. Or maybe the year after that. --- Edit: It looks like I was composing my response at about the exactly same time as joclyn. Hers is better, but I'll leave mine anyway because I think it's striking how similar our thoughts are.
Thanks to both of yoiu Joclyn and Kaspian......I will take your good advice and wait till next year.......cheers...have a great day!