There are plenty of reasons why your hydrangeas may not be blooming as much as they once did. Conditions like extreme heat, drought, or excessive sun exposure can all impact how many flowers your shrubs produce. Pruning is also an important consideration.
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 need regular water to thrive. Too little water can result in stunted growth and failure to develop flower buds. A drought in the previous growing season can also affect flowering the following year. Plants need consistent moisture, about 2 inches of water per week.
If a hydrangea does not bloom, it could be that it is not suitable for your hardiness zone. While the root system might survive winter, if the variety produced buds on last years stems, the buds are killed by extreme cold, and thus, no blooms the following year.
Trim an inch off the ends of the stems and submerge wilted flowers in a bucket, bowl or sink filled with cool water. If you're trying to revive multiple stems at once, weigh down the stems in the water with a lightweight plate so they stay completely submerged.
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.
The hydrangea is a perennial flower that blooms from mid-summer to late fall. They come back year after year and require regular pruning and fertilization for best results. Hydrangeas can thrive in both full sun or partial shade.
Hydrangeas are long-lived shrubs, sometimes living for up to 50 years if properly cared for. They enjoy morning sun but afternoon shade, and they need frequent watering during the growing season. Prune them in the fall after the blooms fade so they can grow on strong stems the following summer.
You really want to make sure you are buying the freshest Hydrangeas available (1-3 days old) as they only tend to last 5-9 days depending on how you care for them.
Coffee grounds add extra acidity to the soil around hydrangeas. On a chemical level, this increased acidity makes it easier for the plant to absorb naturally occurring aluminum in the dirt. The effect is pretty blue clusters of flowers.
In certain plants, the growth node will produce more flowers in that same year. In other plants, the node will not swell until the following year. Such is the case in hydrangeas. They will not rebloom, but deadheading will clean up the plant and make way for the next year's fresh flowers.
Most common hydrangeas prefer a partial sun location - ideally receiving sun in the morning hours and shade in the afternoon. The reblooming Endless Summer® Hydrangea series prefers part shade.
Some hydrangeas change color based on pH; some hydrangeas bloom on fresh growth from this year called new wood, and some flower on the growth they put out last year called old wood. It all depends on the species of hydrangea, so it's helpful to know what you have and keep the plant info card handy.
Unlike other flowers, deadheading hydrangeas will not make them bloom again. Regular hydrangeas bloom once per season, while reblooming varieties produce a second set of flowers later in the season on new stems.
Hydrangeas in their first or second year of being planted often will not give out blooms. This is because they are focusing the majority of their energy on growing a good root system to keep them strong and healthy in their new location. This is a good thing!
There are plenty of reasons why your hydrangeas may not be blooming as much as they once did. Conditions like extreme heat, drought, or excessive sun exposure can all impact how many flowers your shrubs produce. Pruning is also an important consideration.
Hydrangea Care Tips
Water at a rate of 1 inch per week throughout the growing season. Deeply water 3 times a week to encourage root growth. Bigleaf and smooth hydrangeas require more water, but all varieties benefit from consistent moisture.
Hydrangeas Are Great Container Plants
Potted hydrangeas are great alternatives if you only have areas where they are unlikely to grow well in the garden due to extreme cold or heat. Hydrangeas generally grow in USDA Zones 3-9, but in either extreme, they are unlikely to do very well. That's where containers come in.
When you deadhead hydrangeas, you aren't harming the plants at all. Removing the spent blooms triggers flowering shrubs to stop producing seeds and instead put their energy toward root and foliage development. This makes plants stronger and healthier, so by deadheading, you'll be doing your hydrangeas a favor.
But there's one key aspect of ensuring hydrangeas return bigger and better every year: deadheading. The practice of removing spent flowers from a plant, deadheading encourages stronger, more bountiful blooms later on.
Balanced granular fertilizers such as Espoma Rose Tone and Holly Tone are good choices. Jobes Fertilizer Spikes are another good option. Avoid using fast-release fertilizers in liquid form on hydrangeas. These products can stimulate growth in the short term but may not sustain the plant for the long haul.
Prune back stems to just above a fat bud — called a heading cut — in fall, late winter or spring. These plants have conical-shaped flower heads. I recommend leaving the dry, tan flower heads on the plant to provide some winter interest in your landscape, so I wait to prune these until late winter or spring.
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.
Along with too much direct sunlight, too much—or too little—water can cause hydrangea flowers to fade at a faster rate. "Hydrangeas should be watered thoroughly and deeply whenever the top inch of soil is dry," Enfield says. "Be careful not to overwater the plant, which can restrict air flow around the roots."