Hard Pruning Hydrangea

harmer

Hi, I have a mature lace cap hydrangea in the garden. I wanted to hard prune it this year but the very cold weather in March has made this impossible. I wanted to remove the old woody stems and give is a good pruning as it is getting too large for the area. Will I do it any harm if I do this during a mild spell in April. Any advice would be much appriciated I would hate to loose it and would be dissapointed to have no blooms this year. Thanks

sotongeoff

If you hard prune it- you will have no flowers at all this year

Take out say 50 % this year and the rest next year-so in 2 years time you will have the bush you want

Or you can can sacrifice this year's flowering completly

Lyn

I agree with geoff, just take the dead old stems down to the ground and take bud tips back to fat buds, if you want to hard prune it will have to be done over 3 years if you want to keep some flowers on it.

Gardening Grandma

 

The only exceptions to this are H. paniculata and H arborescens, which should be pruned in spring back to the first bud. They flower on this year's wood, unlike mopheads, and lacecaps which bloom on last year's wood and have already set their flower buds.

 

jatnikapyar

Whatever GG, please wait till it warms up a bit, the poor plant will wander what hit it and if we get FROST? the the tiny buds will DIE......perish the thought