I read through some of the older posts and I'm not sure that I know
how to do this. I have to Hydrangeas around six years old that are
getting close to 2 meters in diameter. Unfortunately the path to the
front door lies between them and I fear that a machete will be needed
to enter th house.

Right now the blooms are beginning to fade way although I understand
that early spring is the time to prune them. I realize that cutting
them way back now will probably result in no flowers next year, but it
is getting out of hand.

How far back can I cut the stems and still have flowers next year? Do
I cut every third stem just about back to the ground in order to start
the round-robin type of pruning which will always have two thirds of
the plant flowering? I wish I had known this a few years ago. Oh well.

On Mon, 11 Jul 2005 14:17:53 -0400, dgk
wrote:

I read through some of the older posts and I'm not sure that I know
how to do this. I have to Hydrangeas around six years old that are
getting close to 2 meters in diameter. Unfortunately the path to the
front door lies between them and I fear that a machete will be needed
to enter th house.

Right now the blooms are beginning to fade way although I understand
that early spring is the time to prune them. I realize that cutting
them way back now will probably result in no flowers next year, but it
is getting out of hand.

How far back can I cut the stems and still have flowers next year? Do
I cut every third stem just about back to the ground in order to start
the round-robin type of pruning which will always have two thirds of
the plant flowering? I wish I had known this a few years ago. Oh well.

I don't think it will make much difference whether you cut the stems
right down to the base or only down by half. New growth will come from
the top of the latter or the base of the former, but I doubt if either
will be ripe enough to produce flowers next year. So you might just as
well cut them down to the base, doing a third or even a half of the
total. You'll still have quite a lot of stems left for flowering next
year, and you take out those stems, or half of them, after they've
flowered.

OTOH you could just cut the whole thing right down and start again,
knowing that you'll sacrifice next years flowers, but that it'll be OK
after that, provided you give it regular attention. But I think I'd do
the former, as the remaining old growth will give some frost
protection to the new stuff over the winter.


--
Chris

E-mail: christopher[dot]hogg[at]virgin[dot]net