Garden Q&A: Is it too late to prune my hydrangeas in spring?

Whether you're a gardening beginner or expert, Irish Examiner columnist Peter Dowdall has the answer to your questions

QUESTION

I never pruned back my hydrangeas this winter. Am I too late or can I still do it?

ANSWER

Pruning hydrangeas a job that is better done late than not at all. 

I do like to try and have mine done before the end of February but that doesn’t always happen either. 

I wouldn’t cut them back too hard at this time of the year, more I would just give them a trim, removing last seasons, dried out flower heads. 

Always cut back to a node. 

These are clearly visible right now as the new foliage is bursting through the nodes on all the stems. 

One peculiarity with the macrophylla hydrangeas, that is the lacecap and mophead forms that we all know and love so well is that is you cut too hard and leave fewer than seven nodes on a stem then that stem wont flower this year. 

Don’t worry it will catch up and bloom again in the future but it will take a year or two “time out”. 

No such care needs to be taken with Hydrangea arborescens types such as Annabelle which can be cut back to within a few inches of ground level each year. 

So too, the paniculata hydrangeas such as limelight, they also don’t need to have the amount of remaining nodes counted, though don’t cut them back to ground level or anything like it, simply prune them to a rounded shape and a smaller size to what they are now.

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