Dear pros, I have a hydrangea in front of my house (growing between another shrub on the right, a tall cedar tree on the left - which I have just pruned a little bit to give space for hydrangea; and a low conifer in front). The stems are not thick enough to stay vertical, they probably were not cut appropriately, you can see the rest problems in the pics (falling apart stems, growing in just one direction). I do not know what cultivar this is (probably Hydrangea macrophylla - mophead flowers)... I need your advice on how to reshape this plant (how and when prune it, etc.). Thank you all in advance!
If you think it fell open from how it was pruned then let it grow for a time without being cut in the same way and it should recover. In the mean time you could tie it together.
I tried to tie it together the day before yesterday, but had to refuse from doing this (I broke a few new shoots and a stem with flowers). Stems are too long and thin, and the flowers are heavy - they break if I touch them (they grow bending unnaturally in different directions)... Thank you very much for your replies, Ron.
Get some tomato cages to keep your hydrangeas from falling over. In the fall, cut out one third of the old growth right down to the ground. Then you can cut back the remaining stems to lower buds. You can keep it as a mound, perhaps eight inches tall during the winter. You can prune it and shape it in the early spring before it flowers as well.
Thank you for the advice. Will try to find an appropriate cage (stems with flowers are very heavy). Not sure though how to find the lower bud :( I can see that the stems have been cut twice; now they consist of 3 parts, two of which are wood and the upper one is green (flowers grow on their tips). Under the lower buds you mean the lower leaves? Probably, I have to cut the upper part of the conifer growing in front of the Hydrangea to make it lower so that hydrangea is exposed to the sunlight better ... (not sure what cultivar this conifer belongs to - will try to find out if it can be cut). Thank you, David!
The buds are usually in pairs of two on opposite sides of each stem. There are a number of these pairs of buds all up and down the stem. When you prune in the fall, cut the stem to a pair of these buds that are about eight inches off of the ground. Or, if you don't have buds showing then just cut the stem at a location that is just above where the leaves are. If you cut in the wrong place or leave too much space between nodes, the tip of that stem will just dry up and you can easily repair your pruning in the spring by cutting off the brown bit then. The old stems are easy to spot, in order to remove one third of them. They will be darker and woodier. Just cut them close to the ground. Your hydrangea is pretty tough and can tolerate a hard pruning.
