When To Prune Strawberry Sundae Hydrangea

To remove the old flowers to make way for new ones, and to encourage fresh growth, the best time to prune this hydrangea is after the worst of winter's cold has passed—most likely in February or March. You can trim it back by as much as a third every year.

What is the difference between Strawberry Sundae hydrangea and vanilla Strawberry hydrangea?

Answer. Vanilla Strawberry™ and Strawberry Sundae® will have a similar bloom color, starting creamy white and aging to a nice deep pink as evening temps cool down in fall. The difference in these plants is the size, with Strawberry Sundae® being more compact than the statuesque Vanilla Strawberry™.

How do you prune a Strawberry hydrangea?

How to prune: Remove old stems and deadhead spent blooms so that the plant can use its energy and nutrients to promote new growth. To control shrub size, prune in late winter (The plant flowers on new wood), before new growth appears.

How do you prepare Strawberry hydrangeas for winter?

The individual flowers are white when they first appear in summer and turn pink as the summer progresses, gradually turning red. 'Vanilla Strawberry' hydrangea flowers are well suited as cut flowers. To save these showy blooms through the winter, cut and dry the flowers in fall.

When should you not trim hydrangeas?

If it blooms on old wood (stems from the summer before the current one), its buds are being formed, and if you wait too late you may cut them off, meaning no flowers next spring. So these shrubs should be pruned immediately after their flowers fade.

When should you not cut back hydrangeas?

Trimming should be done immediately after flowering stops in summer, but no later than August 1. Do not prune in fall, winter, or spring or you could be cutting off new buds. Tip-pruning the branches as leaves emerge in spring can encourage multiple, smaller flower heads rather than fewer larger flower heads.

Why is my strawberry sundae hydrangea not turning pink?

Then, when the temperatures drop later in the summer and it cools down, the flowers turn reddish-pink. If your late summer night temperatures are still quite warm, the hydrangea may not have that opportunity to change color.

Should I deadhead my Strawberry vanilla hydrangea?

You should deadhead throughout the blooming season to keep your hydrangeas looking their beast and encourage new flower growth. However, stop deadheading hydrangea shrubs in mid to late fall, leaving any spent blooms in place.

How tall does a strawberry sundae hydrangea get?

'Rensun', commonly sold under the trade name of STRAWBERRY SUNDAE, typically grows to only 5' tall and to 3-4' wide. Flower panicles (7” by 5”) feature showy sterile flowers which bloom on new growth from mid-summer to fall.

Should you cut hydrangea bushes back in the fall?

When to prune? Prune these hydrangeas only after bloom in the summer and not in the fall. Old wood hydrangeas start developing their bloom buds for next year in August and September. If you don't prune your hydrangeas real soon, then it is better to wait until next year.

Can you prune a vanilla strawberry hydrangea in the fall?

Pruning. Panicle hydrangeas such as Strawberry Vanilla™ flower on new wood that grows in the current season. For this reason, it's important to do your pruning after they have flowered, in late fall to early spring.

Can you cut hydrangeas back too far?

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.

What type of hydrangea is strawberry sundae?

Hydrangea paniculata Strawberry Sundae®

Do you trim down hydrangeas for winter?

No need to prune. Leaving the old flower heads on the plants will also add some interest to the winter landscape. It's best to save hydrangea pruning chores until spring or summer after plants bloom (don't worry, the new growth will soon hide any dead stems from the following year).

How do you trim a hydrangea for winter?

So what we're going to do is we're going to clip this spent flower off this old flower on this

Can I prune hydrangeas in September?

Hydrangea macrophylla, big leaf hydrangea These plants produce buds in late summer to early fall (August-September) that will form next year's flowers. So prune these shrubs after they finish blooming before August (again, make a heading cut).

Can you prune hydrangeas anytime?

Generally, they are pruned in late summer, after blooming has ceased. However, some people prune them in fall while others do so in spring. As long as you do not cut any stems that have not bloomed, leaving healthy buds intact, they should be okay.

What happens if you cut hydrangeas to the ground?

If your oakleaf hydrangea is very old and woody, take out a few of the oldest, thickest stems all the way to the ground in the early spring to encourage some new growth. Don't cut the entire plant to the ground, as you'll both stress the plant and lose a whole season of blooms.

Should you cut back hydrangeas every year?

In addition to encouraging hydrangeas to produce more flowers, pruning these shrubs each year helps keep them healthy if they get damaged by weather and allows you to shape them however you like.

Why isn t my Strawberry Sundae hydrangea blooming?

Often, it is the result of the wrong fertilizer. Give your Strawberry Sundae a fertilizer that is higher in phosphorous than nitrogen. The middle number on the NPK ratio should be higher than the other two. Also, take a look at our hydrangea pruning guide for tips on when and how to prune.