Pruning Hydrangeas

There are several types of Hydrangea to consider. The Mop Heads or Hortensia above, the lace caps or other species. They are a rewarding group of plants to grow well but need the right conditions to excel.

Lavender will not sprout willingly from old wood. So when pruning make certain some green wood remains. Lavenders bloom on the stems that grew that year. Pruning is designed to encourage more flowering branches and give plants a longer life.

I was reading an old book by Adam the Gardener the Sunday Express tipster and looking at his suggestions for January.

The extreme sport of ‘extreme pruning’ has just missed out on an award for this effort on an open planned garden tree in Yeadon. It will be revisited as it buds and leafs up later in the year. At the moment is strikes an interesting pose.

I have 3 good sized compost bins and the Metro district council supplies and takes away a brown bin  each month (for an annual fee). However that is still not enough at this time of year and I can fill the car boot many times over to take thick hedge prunings and woody bits to the local recycling center.

Hydrangeas, with their extravagant blooms, are a quintessential part of any garden. However, coaxing the best performance from these plants requires more than just basic gardening skills. This guide will share some secret Master Gardener’s Tricks to Grow the Successful Hydrangeas!

Are you frustrated because your French or mophead (Hydrangea macrophylla) hydrangeas only bloom once? Then the Endless Summer® Hydrangea series is the answer to adding repeat blooming hydrangeas to your landscape. With proper care, they will bloom from early summer to fall. The first flush of flowers in the early summer usually bloom on old wood; therefore, any necessary pruning should be done immediately after blooming. Flower buds will then form on new wood. As these blooms fade, deadheading is recommended to encourage more flower bud production. Flower color is determined by the availability of aluminum in the soil. If the soil is more acid, the flowers will be blue in color, but in alkaline soils, they will turn pink. If the soil pH is neutral (7.0), then the flowers will be purple.

Now is the time to tame those apple trees with some dormant pruning. Apple trees have already set buds for the upcoming growing season and are in need of a little haircut for optimum fruit set and health. When pruning an apple tree, your first job is to get a full tree view.

While romantics look to mid-February as a time to impress their favorite Valentine with chocolates and flowers, experienced gardeners know now is time to show their plants love through careful pruning! In a recent blog, Kerrie Roach discussed fruit tree pruning. Here, I will concentrate on ornamental landscape plants. While it is time to prune many plants, as usual, there is an exception to the rule. Do not prune plants that flower from late winter to mid-May, such as azalea, forsythia, and weigela, in winter. Gardenias also fall into this category but don’t bloom until June. Pruning now removes flower blooms resulting in a sparse spring floral display. Wait until after these plants complete flowering this spring to prune. For an extensive list of the optimal pruning times for individual plants, visit HGIC 1053 Pruning Shrubs.

Fruit-tree pruning, as mentioned in the February garden chores, is a perfect way to get a mid- to late-winter jump on things.Cutting out infested Viburnum twigs loaded with viburnum leaf beetle egg cases before they hatch will reduce your problem with these tricky pests.The three D’s of dead, damaged and diseased wood, can always go, no matter the month. Survey the yard for such wood anywhere, on any plant. Eliminate suckers at the base of grafted trees and shrubs, like crab

Unless they are overgrown, lilacs don’t need much pruning (except the “musts” for every woody plant we all agreed recently that we’d keep up with, removing dead, diseased and damaged woody, or any that’s just not well-placed).But by doing a little pruning (read: cutting bouquets of flowers to enjoy) you do the plant a favor, and prevent the ugly aftermath of lilac-blooming season, those dried-up trusses that persist forever, or so it seems.

I have grown a lot of viburnums over the years, and have pruned them at various times of year for one reason or another. Usually viburnums need relatively little pruning, assuming you planted the right cultivar in the right-sized space (for example, not ‘Mariesii’ among the doublefiles, shown, but ‘Watanabei’ if you only had a smallish area). Even the lightest form of pruning, the removal of spent flowers called deadheading, isn’t needed with most viburnums, since what you want is fruit after the flowers (unlike all that deadheading with lilacs, for instance, to prevent messiness).POOR PLANNING TO BLAMEMost of the pruning I’ve had to do on viburnums was because I didn’t leave enough room for the plant to reach its eventual size, and poor planning (meaning my impatience to have a filled-in garden) caught up with me in time. I have cut several viburnums to the ground or the