To prepare your container-grown Endless Summer hydrangea for overwintering, stop fertilizing them around the end of July or early August. Don't prune them in the fall. In cold climates, overwinter the container in a sheltered location such as an unheated garage, greenhouse, shed, or basement5.
Endless Summer Hydrangeas should not be pruned in the fall.
This will ensure the flower buds that have made it through the winter have emerged. Prune out only dead wood and leave any green buds or leaves.
Keep Them Cozy. Whether or not hydrangeas need protection depends on how cold the winter temperatures drop. If the air temperature doesn't go below 0 degrees (zone 7) there is no need for winter protection. In colder climates, wrap or completely cover marginally hardy hydrangeas.
In late winter or early spring, these shrubs can be cut all the way back to the ground. Smooth hydrangeas will produce much larger blooms if pruned hard like this each year, but many gardeners opt for smaller blooms on sturdier stems.
If you don't prune hydrangeas then they can eventually resemble a tangled mass of woody stems, and the flowers will become smaller and less showy.
Hydrangeas that bloom on new wood can be safely pruned in late fall once the plants have gone dormant or in early spring. Next year's flower buds won't be formed until late spring the same year they bloom, so there is no risk of removing the buds if you prune in fall or spring.
Covering should be done when fully dormant (around November 30th), or at the same time you would cover perennials in your garden. In spring, uncover with your perennials when the ground is no longer frozen. The plant will grow from the base of the plant and also from any old branches that survived winter.
Pruning many plants will help rejuvenate them so they can produce healthy new foliage and beautiful flowers. Endless Summer Hydrangeas is a plant that benefits from this practice. Early spring is the perfect time to prune them to help prepare them for the season.
Cut the dead stumps down to their base to completely remove them. This will allow the new growth underneath to have a chance to succeed. Dead and old blooms need to be removed to make room for new buds to come through. Cut the flower head off right above the first few leaves to encourage blooms for the next summer.
Endless Summer Hydrangeas thrive in partial shade, or roughly four hours of direct, unfiltered sunlight per day. It's best if they receive sun in the morning and shade in the afternoon.
The main reason that mophead hydrangea flowers such as Endless Summer and Nikko Blue turn brown is hot mid-day to afternoon sun. If mophead varieties are planted in full sun, or where they get hot sun during the noon hour, they will brown quickly.
When to prune hydrangeas. Most pruning is carried out in late winter or early spring. However, the climbing hydrangea is pruned after flowering in summer.
So these shrubs should be pruned immediately after their flowers fade. Conversely, if the shrub flowers on new wood (stems developed during the current season), its buds are set within the season, so the shrub should be pruned in early spring before that new growth emerges.
The primary reasons hydrangeas don't bloom are incorrect pruning, bud damage due to winter and/or early spring weather, location and too much fertilizer. Hydrangea varieties can be of the type that blooms on old wood, new wood or both. Old wood is the current year's growth and new wood is next year's (spring) growth.
Hydrangeas that bloom on new wood require pruning in late winter or early spring. Prune to shape, cutting back to about two feet. The pruning promotes new, sturdy growth, which provides the blooms next season.
To rejuvenate the hydrangea, remove up to 1/3 of the older living stems down to the ground each summer. This will revitalize the plant. If necessary to control the size of the plant, cut back before late July to allow for buds to develop. Usually the plant will return immediately to its former size.
Frigid winter temperatures, as well as winter winds, can cause winter kill on hydrangeas. The low winter temperatures can kill the plant, or they might die because of drying out caused by winds.
Endless Summer hydrangea macrophylla require very little pruning day-to-day, so you are able to simply enjoy the beautiful plants. These perennial hydrangeas bloom on growth from the current year as well as previous years, which allows for the re-blooming throughout the summer.