My Mophead Hydrangea is falling outwards

arthur-clark

Hi all,

I'm more of a vegetable gardener but I have just moved into a new place which has a giant Mophead Hydrangea bush in the front garden.

It's a beautiful bush which has bloomed thoroughly all over. So much so, that is all seems to be falling outwards under the weight of the bloom leaving a rather unsightly 'hole' in the middle of the bush.

I know very little about these, and my research on the internet seems to all say that pruning should be done in the winter to increase the chance of bloom.

This one obviously blooms well and I'm more worried if I start pruning to reduce weight I might have a detrimental effect on it's bloom!

Any advice appreciated. Whether I should prune/trim, and if so how/where.

Thanks!

Arthur

Dovefromabove

Hi Arthur

I would leave it ... if the blooms are heavy after rain you can shake a lot of it off which will help ... I wouldn't prune until spring ... after the worst of the frosts are over ... then just deadhead, removing the faded flowers back to the first good buds.  If it's a venerable bush and the stems are congested you could take a few out at the base as well.  

arthur-clark

thank you