Overly large, gangly oakleaf hydrangea

9 years ago

My oakleaf hydrangea has become large and gangly. Many of the limbs are bare with only new growth at the ends of the stems. I tried to do some pruning of dead limbs in early spring, but stopped because it was too difficult to distinguish between dead and alive. Now that it's leafed out, I've cut some dead wood away (very difficult job), but it's still gangly and over large.

My question is: Can I cut the oakleaf back hard to about 2-3 ft tall and let it start over and, if so, when is the best time to to that?

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Comments (5)

luis_pr
9 years ago
I would do it soon, before month end or before mid-July. I have not "tested" that with oakleafs but confirmed it with Macs by accident.

Several years ago, I lost 99% of all old-wood Mac flower buds one year when a friend, with my permission, pruned all the blooms... days before mid July.

I have not forgotten the experience of not getting flowers from old wood buds due to mid July pruning! If we assume that the oakleafs will do similarly, you should prune soon. Mother Nature likes to change the exact date every year!!!

Check how much sun it gets as some plants who get little sun like to stretch towards the light and become spindly and gangly in the process.

Luis
October_Gardens
9 years ago
My Alice has the same problems. It's not large yet but the old stems are bare except for at the terminal ends. I'd highly suspect that the shorter you cut the old wood, the more likely the plant is to produce more new shoots from the ground. In that sense, it would not hurt to cut the old stems down some, even if they are still alive. And thus, next May or June you would delete those other old stems if they haven't produced any growth.
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zqueen
Original Author
9 years ago
Thanks, you guys. I was just out looking at it and trimmed a couple more branches that I could get to and that I knew were dead. I live in OK and it's already hot here. I'm hesitant to cut it back now just because our climate is so challenging by this point. I may wait till Sept/early Oct, realizing that I may have no blooms at all next year. I did have it generally trimmed back this spring because it was so unwieldy and have yet to see a bloom, so this year may be a bust as well (but I knew that might be the case--old wood and all). I'm just glad that it's possible to cut it back hard if I need to. Proper pruning remains a mystery to me (despite my best efforts to learn about it) and, I suspect, a mystery to all but a very few, including landscaping people. I had my azaleas pruned this year after they bloomed, by people who swore they knew how to prune azaleas, and all they did was give them a crewcut--ridiculous.
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9 years ago
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9 years ago
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Overly large, gangly oakleaf hydrangea

Comments (5)

luis_pr

October_Gardens

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zqueen
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Overly large, gangly oakleaf hydrangea

Comments (5)

luis_pr

October_Gardens

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zqueenOriginal Author

October_Gardens

hc mcdole

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zqueen
Original Author