{"id":2917,"date":"2020-03-27T00:07:25","date_gmt":"2020-03-27T07:07:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/depts.washington.edu\/hortlib\/pal\/pal-question-582\/"},"modified":"2024-04-13T12:35:38","modified_gmt":"2024-04-13T19:35:38","slug":"increase-flowering-on-hydrangeas","status":"publish","type":"pal","link":"https:\/\/depts.washington.edu\/hortlib\/pal\/increase-flowering-on-hydrangeas\/","title":{"rendered":"Encouraging blooms on Hydrangeas"},"content":{"rendered":"

Help! We live in North Bend and have several Hydrangeas. I have a large Annabelle that<\/strong>
\nhas never bloomed properly. Is there some special care or<\/strong>
\nfertilizing that I can do to encourage normal blooms on these<\/strong>
\nplants?<\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Here is some information on how to improve flowering, from the U.S. National Arboretum:<\/p>\n

Excerpt:<\/p>\n

“There are three possibilities for lack of flowering among the hydrangea
\nspecies. The first two too much shade and improper pruning apply to
\nall hydrangeas, while the other weather-related damage to flower buds applies primarily to the bigleaf hydrangea.<\/p>\n

“While most Hydrangea species benefit from some shade, too much shade can
\nreduce flowering. This is particularly true of panicle hydrangea, which
\nis the one Hydrangea species that grows well in full sun. If you have a
\nhydrangea that used to bloom well but now flowers only sparsely, evaluate
\nwhether the growth of nearby trees has reduced the amount of light that
\nreaches the hydrangea. If so, you may want to consider moving the
\nhydrangea to a sunnier location.<\/p>\n

“Improper pruning can also reduce flowering in Hydrangea. Since bigleaf
\nand oakleaf hydrangeas flower on previous year’ s growth, potential
\nflowers buds would be removed if the plants were pruned in fall, winter
\nor spring. Panicle and smooth hydrangea flower on this year’s growth, so
\npruning them in early summer would reduce or eliminate flowering for that
\nyear.<\/p>\n

“The most common reason for lack of flowering in the bigleaf hydrangea is
\nunfavorable weather. Most H. macrophylla cultivars flower primarily on
\nprevious year’s growth. Weather conditions that damage aboveground parts
\nof the plant can reduce flowering. Damaging weather conditions include
\nearly fall freezes that occur before the plant is completely dormant,
\nextremely low winter temperatures, and late spring freezes that occur
\nafter the plant has broken dormancy. In USDA Cold Hardiness zone 6 and
\nwarmer, which is the recommended growing area for H. macrophylla, the
\nmost common of these unfavorable weather events is late spring freezes
\nthat damage tender new growth. This is particularly true in the
\nsoutheastern U.S., where ‘see-saw’ temperatures are very common in the
\nspring.<\/p>\n

“Bigleaf hydrangea responds quickly to warm temperatures in late winter
\nand early spring by breaking dormancy and producing new leaves.
\nUnfortunately, these spells of warm weather are often followed by periods
\nin which temperatures reach well below freezing. The severity of the
\ndamage caused by these freezes depends on how many of the buds had broken
\ndormancy. If a substantial portion of the buds on a stem were actively
\ngrowing, the whole branch may die. For some cultivars, the loss of the
\naboveground part of the plant will completely eliminate flowering the
\nfollowing summer. The plant will produce new buds from the base of the
\nstems, but stems produced from these buds will not flower in these
\ncultivars.”<\/p>\n

Failure to flower<\/a>, <\/span>Hydrangea<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Help! We live in North Bend and have several Hydrangeas. I have a large Annabelle that has never bloomed properly. Is there some special care or fertilizing that I can do to encourage normal blooms on these plants?   Here is some information on how to improve flowering, from the U.S. National Arboretum: Excerpt: “There are three possibilities for lack of flowering among the hydrangea species. The first two too much shade and improper pruning apply to all hydrangeas, while…<\/p>\n

Continue reading Encouraging blooms on Hydrangeas<\/span><\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"menu_order":0,"template":"","keyword":[468,292],"class_list":["post-2917","pal","type-pal","status-publish","hentry","keyword-failure-to-flower","keyword-hydrangea"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/depts.washington.edu\/hortlib\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pal\/2917"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/depts.washington.edu\/hortlib\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pal"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/depts.washington.edu\/hortlib\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/pal"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/depts.washington.edu\/hortlib\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/depts.washington.edu\/hortlib\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2917"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"keyword","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/depts.washington.edu\/hortlib\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/keyword?post=2917"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}