Hydrangea pruning mistake cost me a season of blooms

I cut them back in early spring and got nothing. Now I wait until after they flower to avoid that.

3 comments

3 Comments

paige861mo agoMost Upvoted

tbh that's the worst feeling, omg. Cut them in spring and you're just slicing off all the flower buds they made last year. Has to be right after they bloom in summer, otherwise you get a bunch of leaves and zero color. Made the exact same mistake on my first big hydrangea and it sucked. You just have to wait a full year for them to recover, nothing to do but be patient. Learned that lesson for good.

theajackson1mo ago

Yeah, learned that one the hard way too.

william_henderson1mo ago

I mean, is it really that bad to wait a full year? My neighbor butchered his hydrangeas way worse than just a bad prune, like hacked them to the ground, and they still came back. They just looked kinda sad for a season. Maybe it's just me but the whole "you ruined it for a year" thing feels a bit dramatic. Plants are tougher than we give them credit for sometimes.