Cutting Hydrangeas - Instructions for Spring and Autumn

• Cutting type 1
• Cutting type 2

Cutting hydrangea is easy, but only if you know which species of hydrangea you cut. What is not always clear - the article tells you which type of cut her hydrangea is and how you recognize it, then there is the now simple guide to Schnitt.Hortensien there are about 80 species and countless varieties of breeding, and not every dealer reveals the exact (and correct) name of a hydrangea. You need to know to assign them immediately to a cutting type, so first follows an overview:

The cut of the hydrangeas

Before getting started with the classifications and instructions, first of all, good news: most hydrangeas do not have to be cut back at all until they are very old. Previously, the cut is limited to the removal of dead / weak shoots (in spring) and faded flowers (withered).

Only if a hydrangea has become too big, old, dense after years, it needs a cut, and that takes place depending on the type of hydrangea cut in autumn or spring.

Which hydrangea is it ">

The first basic rule for listing hydrangeas is that if they bloom in pink, purple, or blue, they are Hydrangea macrophylla, cut type 1. If the flowers are white, they can be all sorts of hydrangeas, and they need additional identification traits.

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Cutting type 1

1. Hydrangea macrophylla:

• Thick, sometimes shiny leaves, often heart-shaped
• Blade edges roughly serrated
• Up to 2 m high, up to 1.50 wide (sometimes larger)
• Short leaf stems, often with black or red stripes / spots
• "Mopheads", descendants of H. macrophylla var. Macrophylla, usually bloom in pink, purple, blue
• The only hydrangeas whose flowers show fresh opened color, all others are white at first
• White flowers are very rare in mopheads
• "Lacecaps", H. macrophylla var. Normalis, are like mopheads, only the flowers carry a field of fertile flowers in the middle and the fake flowers as a wreath around them

2. To section group 1 belong:

• Plate hydrangeas, Hydrangea serrata look like dainty lacecaps
• Climbing hydrangeas, Hydrangea petiolaris, easy to identify in climbing behavior
• Hydrangea aspera, Hydrangea aspera Hydrangea aspera Macrophylla Hydrangea heteromalla Hydrangea involucrata Hydrangea involucrata Hydrangeas quercifolia Hydrangea squirrel Hydrangea sargentiana Hydrangea seamannii Hydrangea villosa Hydrangea seamannii all available only from specialists (with botanical names).

These hydrangeas are preparing for the next year in the current season, under the bloom just blossomed, the approach of the next flowering is already underway.

Classically, it is recommended for autumn cut, although autumn is a little inaccurate. They are cut most secure before August, because they could start with the bud plant from August.

If you cut too late, cut off all the buds of the following year ...

If you cut, then as follows:
• If the hydrangea is 5 years or older, you can / should cut away a third of the older shoots every year to keep the hydrangea vital
• If the hydrangea has become too large, it can be cropped immediately after flowering

Regardless of the cut is the handling of faded flowers. If the shoot is not pruned, they can be broken out or left over the winter at the hydrangea, which looks good and gives her protection.

If you missed the right time to cut Type 1, you can also cut in spring, but then have to make a precise distinction between stems with and without buds, if you want to see flowers.

Tip: Among the mopheads, there is a small perennial flowering, which buds on old and new shoots. If you have one of these "everbloomers" in the garden, you can actually cut whenever you want.

Cutting type 2

1. Hydrangea arborescens, forest hydrangeas:

• Heart-shaped leaves, thinner and softer than in H. macrophylla
• Matte surface, rough texture, long leaf stalks
• Great flowering of the cultivars, the more original a H. arborescens is, the less fictitious it has

Tip: If you buy hydrangeas best during flowering, then you can see if your hydrangea z. For example, the big snowballs (an Annabelle you actually wanted to buy) really make you want to see. Within the species there are original varieties with completely different flowers, possibly even a breeding plant remembers its original genetics.

2. Hydrangea paniculata, panicle hydrangeas:

• are easily recognizable by their more or less pan-shaped flowers, they always turn white and often turn pink than older flowers.

Cut type 2 develop the flowers at the bud of the current season.

Frequently, a cut in the spring is recommended for these hydrangeas, based on thoughts of us only almost hardy (garden) hydrangeas, which need foliage and shoots as winter protection. Is not wrong, especially young hydrangeas go better and better with full foliage in the winter.

However, cut type 2 does not need to be cropped the first few years, and when the time comes, you can cut in spring - but also at any other time in the growing season, see "panicle hydrangea, hydrangea paniculata - care and cutting" what happens when Detail offers. There is a single inconvenient time to cut: When hydrangeas are about to complete their flowers, they need all their strength.