Hydrangea help!

Julia1983

Hi all, 
Been off the forum for a while awaiting a house move which has finally happened  so now I have a new garden to take care of. There are two large hydrangeas at either side of the front door. They have been pruned a bit but are still quite imposing. My question is, could anyone identify what type they are and therefore when and how they can be further pruned? Thanks in advance! 

Dovefromabove

Those larger leaves look like brambles to me. I’d paint them with glyphosate PDQ

We’ll have to wait for some new growth and flowers from the hydrangeas before we can ID them. 

😊 

Purplerain

If you feel the hydrangeas are too big, it won't do any harm to cut them down further in Spring. You won't get any flowers this year, but you will next year and they will be at a size that you prefer. Your hydrangeas are mopheads or lacecaps which flower on the previous years wood.

Obelixx

I would remove all the prickly bramble stems by hand or with a fork if you can.

The hydrangea will reveal itself when it flowers and, depending on variety, that may be this year or next.  Paniculata types flower on new wood so that would be this coming season.  Mop heads and lace caps flower on previous season's woods so that will be next year.

It has been very badly pruned so I would also take all those twiggy ends back to just above a leaf node and then feed it some decent slow release fertiliser such as pelleted chicken manure and a generous dollop of well-rotted garden compost or manure.

Julia1983

Thanks all. Have managed to pull the brambles up I think, I hadn't even noticed them!  I have decided to just prune them back even if it does mean losing flowers, at least we'll be able to get through the front door! 

Julia1983

I found one of last year's flowers if anyone is able to identify from this? 

Valleysgirl

Possibly 'Lacecap' hydrangea, only as earlier I was up my garden and was tidying up mine in pots , cutting off last years flowers down to some nice fat buds and they looked like the one in your picture you posted.

Fairygirl

There's another solution here @Julia1983.
If they're going to be blocking your doorway, perhaps it would be better to remove them and plant something that isn't going to require constant pruning and controlling to keep it in the space you have.
There's no law saying you have to keep them 

They certainly look more like a lacecap rather than a paniculata type.

Julia1983

Fairygirl said:

There's another solution here @Julia1983.
If they're going to be blocking your doorway, perhaps it would be better to remove them and plant something that isn't going to require constant pruning and controlling to keep it in the space you have.
There's no law saying you have to keep them 

They certainly look more like a lacecap rather than a paniculata type.

I'd quite like to replace them with something more manageable but it is only a short term rental property (2 years or so) through my husbands employment 🙂 so we can do whatever we like within reason but I don't want to put a huge amount of effort in with that sort of thing. We're investing in some veggie beds and a pollinator patch in the rear garden so that should keep me busy 😉

Fairygirl

Fair enough @Julia1983.  Good luck with it.
You can always just remove a number of stems, right back to the base, all round, so that you have a slimmer shrub.