Hydrangea, due to its unusually lush flowering, is an indispensable element of many landscape designs. But maintaining such beauty is not easy. An important role in caring for it is played by a properly organized procedure for trimming hydrangeas for the winter.

Is hydrangea trimmed in the fall for winter

There are many varieties of this culture, and they all do not behave the same during wintering. In addition, in each individual area where it grows, winter can have its own climatic features. All this becomes the cause of constant debate among experienced gardeners, why do hydrangea pruning after flowering in the fall, is it necessary at all or is it enough to prune the bushes in spring.

The answer to this question cannot be unequivocal, because the need for such scraps is determined by:

• variety and type of plant;
• climatic conditions;
• the age of each individual instance;
• pursued goals.

Important! Autumn pruning time is the lack of risk to harm the plant during the period of active sap flow, which becomes possible with the procedure carried out in the spring. If during spring pruning one cannot guess with the time of its carrying out, then the culture can “cry out” all the juice and the abyss.

Not all varieties of hydrangeas pruning for the winter is always good. For example, panicled and tree-like tolerate this procedure, pleasing with excellent flowering, for large-leaved - it does not always end happily. But it is clear that in autumn it is necessary to remove dry inflorescences from all plants, protecting the branches from damage under the weight of snow.

When deciding whether to trim, the goals with which it should be carried out mean a lot:

• for the formation of crowns and aesthetically attractive forms of shrubs;
• to improve the culture;
• to stimulate intense flowering and the size of inflorescences;
• for rejuvenating old plants;
• for the formation of the stem.

Did you know? The color of hydrangea is affected by the level of acidity and alkalinity of the soil. When these indicators are regulated, the color of the flowering culture changes.

In all these cases, removing branches for the winter can bring a positive result.

Sanitary and thinning autumn trimmings with skillful execution usually have a beneficial effect on all varieties of this culture

When to Cut Hydrangea

To obtain a positive effect, you need to know when to carry out autumn pruning. But there is no universal period for carrying out this procedure before preparing the culture for the upcoming wintering. In each separate climatic region, these periods are individual, and in order not to harm the bushes, one should act depending on the climate conditions of a certain area.

Important! Trimming the plant is better than later after complete shedding of foliage with the onset of the dormant phase of the shrub. The absence of leaves helps to figure out which branches should be removed.

For the first time, you can crop the crop after the plant reaches 2-3 years of age with the appearance on it of strong shoots that require formation.

In the suburbs, the middle lane

The middle zone of Russia and the Moscow Region, with their warm summers, average winter frosts and heavy snowfalls, belong to temperate regions. Cooling here begins with November frosts and the first snow. It is then, as a rule, that the most opportune moment for trimming hydrangea comes from the end of October to the middle of November. Changing weather conditions will tell you a more accurate date from year to year.

Video: Pruning Hydrangea Trees in Autumn

In the Urals, in Siberia

Winters are very frosty in the regions of the Urals and Siberia, and the summer period does not last long. Hydrangea pruning is carried out here much earlier: in the Ural territories - in the middle of autumn, in Siberian - with the end of September, after which they shelter the bushes for the winter.

Important! Shoots of bushes in these areas should not be cut by more than a third, otherwise they will not have enough time in the summer for full growth and flowering.

In the Leningrad region

The climate of the Leningrad Region has its own special differences: the summer here is short, not hot, and autumn is early. Hydrangea pruning is performed as soon as the leaves fall, from late September to mid-October. It must be superficial so that with the arrival of heat the shoots can grow in time and become covered with flowers.

How to prune hydrangea

There is an opinion that the more and more often hydrangea pruned, the richer it will bloom over time. This approach is acceptable for tree and panicled speciesin which inflorescences appear on annual shoots. Therefore, this procedure helps to grow new young stems, there are more of them, which means that the bush blooms more magnificent. But such a statement is not valid for large-leaved variety, which blooms due to last year's shoots on the bush. By removing such stems when pruning, preventing them from overwintering, you can rid yourself of the pleasure of seeing the whole splendor of the flowering of this crop next year.

When deciding to prune hydrangea for the winter, the species affiliation of the plant and all the related features of the procedure must be taken into account

Panicled

When growing panicle hydrangeas, one should not even doubt the need for pruning for the winter. All buds of the branching skeleton of this plant give shoots, on which flowers subsequently appear. If the bush is not put in order, then after 3-4 years it will acquire an impassable spherical shape.

Important! If you want to get panicle hydrangea in the form of a stem, cut and form the plant in the spring and summer.

With a constantly increasing number of inflorescences of nutrients for each of them, the plant will not have enough, which will lead to a deterioration in their appearance. Inflorescences will become scarce, pale, weak. The main function of the autumn pruning of panicled hydrangea is to thin out the shrub, remove unviable branches. With this procedure, a crown should be formed, for this it is necessary to remove zero shoots, leaving live skeletal branches with 1-3 pairs of buds.

Tree-like

Spring pruning can be done with hydrangea at least 4 years oldotherwise, it is capable of dying, exuding all its juice. In the fall, this kind of culture can be safely cut at an earlier date.

Treelike hydrangea is an abundantly growing bush in a free or spherical shape, always having many extra processes, therefore, almost all types of autumn pruning are required to care for it, about the features of which you need to know:

• during sanitary cleaning, damaged and dried branches, as well as all inflorescences and leaves, with the exception of the upper ones, are removed;
• for anti-aging purposes, branches of plants older than 4 years are trimmed with a length of not more than 10 cm or almost under zero;
• during thinning cleaning, weak, thin, zero processes and all branches growing inside the bush and thickening its branches are cut off;
• pruning for flowering involves shortening all the main shoots to 2–4 pairs of noticeably developed buds, from which new branches with lush inflorescences will appear next year.

Did you know? Hydrangea symbolizes gratitude and cordial affection, has its own day. The holiday is celebrated in the winter of January 5th.

For the tree species, spring pruning is the main one. Even with a quality procedure carried out in the fall, in the spring before the start of the vegetation process, you need to re-examine the shrub and cut off the frozen shoots broken under heavy snow cover.

Large leaf

The most difficult thing is to decide on the autumn pruning of large-leaved hydrangea and correctly carry it out. After all, such a procedure can cause a lack of flowering next year. Therefore, the main task when pruning is to leave the branches that have not yet bloomed, formed in the spring. The closer the young shoot grows to the top, the more chances it has to bloom.

Did you know? Modern breeders have bred new varieties of large-leaved hydrangea, which can be pruned without much concern: they bloom not only on old but also on young branches.

Faded branches older than 5 years old are suitable for removal, since this shrub simply does not need them. Damaged, broken, diseased and zero shoots, numerous thin processes are also subject to removal. Trimming large hydrangea should be done carefully to thin out the shrub and not leave it without flowering for the next year.. This type of hydrangea is most often needed only cosmetic pruning for the winter.

Video: Autumn pruning of large-leaved hydrangea

The choice to prune hydrangea in the fall or spring is always up to the owner of the plant. The main thing is not to harm this luxurious culture. For this, it is important to know the variety of hydrangea grown, to remember its age, to analyze the features of the climatic zone in which it grows. And then the desire to see these lush flowers every year on your site will help make the right decision.