It is "hard to see" just how many leaves we are talking about. But at least, some leaves will act as mulch and that would be fine. Eventually, they will decompose and help feed the plant. Too many leaves could start a haven for fungal spores and this c o u l d create fungal infections in the future.

Thanks, Luis! I'd say just 2-3 inches or so--they really matted down in there, but I won't leave them if they could cause a problem. I'm just being lazy, mostly!
Karen

Good Mor'n!!! ~ I tend to uncover in stages as I have Hydrangea Divas that require serious winter cover-ups lest the Winter would freeze off the bloom buds already in place the previous season. Some that have started flexing their fat-buds & seem eager to stretch I usually completely undress & just leave their cages & burlap blankets close by for quick covers should Ma Nature decide to pull a quick one over-night.

I have a small Nikko still in a huge pot that ended up w/ some moldy looking white stuff on the leaf mulch around, as Luis suggested ~ I did remove the entire cover to dry & hope for the best!

KsKaren ~ loosen the matted mulch a bit to allow some drying just until our iffy conditions settle down a bit. Good luck & Happy Spring!!!

Thanks Ditas! I'm hoping we got through our last cold spell last night (fingers crossed). I have 2 new ones ready to get in the ground, and I'm babying them along in their pots for another week to 10 days.

This was the first year I winterized my hydrangeas, after losing a couple of new ones last year. I can't believe how huge my oldest one is (don't know the age, but probably between 5-10 years) compared to previous years that I didn't--she's gonna be a whopper this year! And all my others made it through, even the scrawny ones, so winterizing is definitely worth it. Next year, though, I think I might do the "laying over and covering with cardboard" thing....
Thanks again!
Karen

Karen, I've found that so much of gardening is based on experience and so much is based on gutt instinct. I think the latter is one reason so many gardeners feel at peace in the garden. You really have to be in there to get a feel for what to do, and sometimes it doesn't always pay to over think. Sometimes it's just a matter of what feels right (I've learned that from pruning my roses each spring).

This is my first year winter-protecting my Nikkos (amaingly, they always bloomed fine for me until I realized they should be winter protected. Then they just stopped blooming as if to mock me lol). I took the coverings off a week ago, but left the extra mulch and leaves at the crown. It just felt right. It worked out because we had 2 nights go below 30 last week. We had a pounding rain last night with high winds, so I figure Mother Nature took a lot of that extra covering away. If not, I'll carefully clear it away in stages as the weather allows.

We've had the most outrageous weather here since last April. I just don't trust that spring's going to do what spring normally does. At this point, I think I'd rather risk fungus than a late freeze.

My early assessment of winter protecting is this: the 2 I smashed down with cardboard, rocks and mulch were much better protected. The one I carefully surrounded with plastic fencing and filled with oak leaves didn't do well at all. We had a lot of heavy snow, and the leaves settled in much lower than the tips of the branches. Even though snow covered them for much of the winter, they were exposed enough at some point. For me, the smash and cover route has been much better. We'll see which ones actually flower. Hopefully some of them will.

Thanks, Mehearty, for your words of wisdom. I am only in the beginning stages of a hydrangea collection, and probably won't end up with too many in the end. We have a mostly shade lawn, and this spot where I have half a dozen hydrangea is one of the only spots that gets enough sunlight to give me some blooms. Since we aren't willing to cut down or limb up our trees any more than they are, we'll have to go the hosta route, for the most part. (Which, by the way, I'm having NO trouble with my growing addiction there!)

I'm glad you shared your thoughts about the laying over vs. fencing techniques. I was just thinking the same about my big girl--if the leaves hadn't packed down and exposed so much of the tops, I'd have probably ended up with less winter kill. I'll get a head start on saving those big boxes.

It just seems odd that you could take a plant like that and fold, spindle and mutilate it, and it would still come out healthy in the end! But I've read enough other accounts that engaging in such plant abuse is worthwhile--kinda like a tough love, or "spare the rod" thing, I guess!!

Thanks again,
Karen

LOL @ plant abuse. It was actually quite easy to flatten them despite my use of the word "smash." They laid down quite easily. I only put some rocks on them to keep the cardboard as flat as possible.

I never got around to winter protecting them until December 9th, so it all might have been in vain.

Here's to a rainy spring and lots of flowers this summer!

I too love the flatboard method ~ one year with the return of *killing Winter* for 2 weeks in April, my newly planted Pia/Little Elf & MyM survived! However all my marginal bloomer-Divas have grown & I found it hard to splay them down for the favored method & opted for the *bundle-up/burlap/cage/dry leaves* (Hayseedman) method for my 10 Divas. I've learned to sacrifice a few woods for ease of bundling & allowed the older rebloomers to fend for themselves as well ... am getting older myself, after all!!!

After tidying up my 21 beds since end of Mar to mid-Apr ~ Ma Nature gave us a respite ~ days of rain & return of cold but so far no overnite freeze TG ... a week for Passover & Easter!!!

GREETINGS TO ALL!!!

I'll have my fingers crossed that you didn't wait too long, Mehearty!

Ditas, you said "for ease of bundling"--do you tie a twine around them and bundle them up before you cage them? I didn't do that...I just put the cage around and filled with leaves. Bundling them may have prevented the packing down of so many leaves in the center of the plant, do you think?
Karen

Hi Karen ~ I have saved all of my p-hose over the years & found them quite useful & glentler for bundling the canes before putting on their burlap-wraps ~ bundling the canes helps make the cage circumferences smaller. I have 10 marginal bloomer Hs that I overwinter in this manner. I think I got away w/o filling the center of the shrub w/ leaves because I wrap the bundled canes w/ burlap & just fill the cages w/ collected dry leaves.

I have a few that are on the firing line of wicked winds, on those I add landscaping fabric around the cage to prevent possible wind-burns.

What we do for these Divas huh?! ~ if only I could, the flatboard method is simpler!!!

i hope I did mine ok. I did not cover the whole plant only the base with lots of leaves. no green yet.
i hope i did not goof and they died