Garden

[JustJazzmom]

Several things to address:

Hydrangeas shouldn't be pruned in the fall because if you have one that blooms on old wood, those blooms are being set. Prune after they finish flowering. If you need to shape a huge hydrangea, it will take a year to adjust back again. You may lose buds for the coming year.

Try to identify what type of hydrangea you have-- sun loving, shade loving, blooms on new vs. old wood. 

Hydrangeas do well with a low nitrogen fertilizer (1st # on the bag) Plant Tone by Espoma is an organic fertilizer that I sprinkle around the drip line 1X/year. If you use a higher nitrogen, it could just push out foliage.

Your winter in late winter to early spring might have frozen the buds as they were starting to break dormancy. Try again next year 

Some hydrangeas are white & like acid soils. They will never turn a different color until the end of the season.

Those that are pink; it indicated there is lime in the soil with a high pH. Those that are blue or purple are growing in acid soil with a low pH.

You can alter the color over time.

Take a pH test first to get a baseline. Then to keep blue hydrangeas blue, add sulfur or aluminum sulfate to the soil & scratch it into the soil. 

To turn blue flowers pink or reddish, add lime to the soil. Scratch that in. It takes a while to see the color change; so test the pH every six months -- spring & fall -+ add adjust the amendment accordingly. 

HTH answer some questions.

[Kitty Galore]

last year we had the mist beautiful blooms , pinks, blues, lavenders all on the same shrub.   In Fact still have the dried blooms in vases that kept  there color .   This year nothing,  but green healthy leaves ,  no flowers or buds !   I dont know if we hsve old wood or not ,  after all the blooms are gone in fall and the l,eaves start drying up I cut them down and leave about -12"stalks and cover them with burlap and every year but 1 they have come up and bloomed.   I'm thinking maybe old wood ??  I beileve that the 2 frosts we had in April plus the very cold start in  spring here on the east coast could be the reason for no blooms this year.   Does anyone know or have you found this to be a reason ?  Oh and our red lillies have no flowers either only the green.  R St of garden looks great .

[novamc1]

My landscape designer recommended  granular delayed-release Orthocote fertilizer, twice a yea for our new and existing shrubs.  I got some at Home Depot's garden center.

All I know is that since it was used, our older hydrangeas  have done great  (and formerly weren't very nice) , and new ones planted last fall are thriving, too.

Both sets of the shrubs are on opposite sides of the house and only get a certain number of sun hours.

The color of hydrangeas supposedly depends on nutrients in the soil.  You can read up on that pretty easily on the internet.  Seems most people want blue flowers, which is what I have, and requires a certain soil composition.

[Twins Mom]

I am excited to see height and blooms on two year old hydrangea.  Put deer fence around after early spring branches were chomped.

[mousiegirl]

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@rms1954 wrote:

I bought one two years ago at Home Depot.  It had flowers on it when I purchased it.  The next year it only grew leaves.  Same thing this year.  More and more stalks growing, but no flowers.  And the leaves have holes so something must be eating at them.  I sprayed with Sevin.  Is there something I should be doing or not doing to get this plant to flower?

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@rms1954   The only reason I can think of for no blooms is that if you pruned too late, you cut off the next year's flower buds.  Prune immediately after the blooms die, but look behind them to see next year's buds and don't cut those off.  All of mine are blooming except the one that I pruned too late, but felt I had to as it was too leggy,  It is huge and bushy so next years will bloom very well.

[rms1954]

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@mousiegirl wrote:

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@rms1954 wrote:

I bought one two years ago at Home Depot.  It had flowers on it when I purchased it.  The next year it only grew leaves.  Same thing this year.  More and more stalks growing, but no flowers.  And the leaves have holes so something must be eating at them.  I sprayed with Sevin.  Is there something I should be doing or not doing to get this plant to flower?

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@rms1954   The only reason I can think of for no blooms is that if you pruned too late, you cut off the next year's flower buds.  Prune immediately after the blooms die, but look behind them to see next year's buds and don't cut those off.  All of mine are blooming except the one that I pruned too late, but felt I had to as it was too leggy,  It is huge and bushy so next years will bloom very well.

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I never pruned it.  It only had flowers when I bought it.  Never flowered after that.