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Nikko Hydrangea Help

16 years ago

Help, my neighbor (with best intentions) pruned my Nikko blue hydrangeas all the way to the ground this past spring. The hydrangeas are now about 2ft tall with lots of leaves but no buds (it is now July) Am I doomed to not see any flowers this year at all? And what do I do to get blooms next year?

Comments (5)

jackz411
16 years ago
No you are not doomed, but no flowers. Next year if the buds make it through the winter and don't get pruned you may have flowers.
yellowgirl
16 years ago
You may yet get a few from buds at the base of the plant, if there were any and if they survived zone 5 winter.

On the bright side, the haircut probably will go a long way toward rejuvenating the plant, so if you can keep the buds alive through winter, next year should be a good one. Perhaps a fence is in order as well!!....yg
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Probably but it will take time to rebuild (several growing seasons). The plant will develop more stems from the crown at its own pace and there is no good way to force it to speed that up. To boost growth, I have sometimes added some alfalfa, alfalfa tea or blood meal (a fertilizer nigh in nitrogen) to roses but not to hydrangeas. When you add nitrogen rich fertilizers to hydrangeas, they do not react with vigorous growth like roses do (there is some reaction but do not expect the plant to double in size & number of stems like some roses can do in one season, for example). The nitrogen in the blood meal makes the plants go into "grow" mode. You can add it per label directions and add no more after the start of July. Too much nitrogen will keep the plant growing in the Fall when it should be dormant. And too much will produce less blooms or no blooms. So go easy. Alfalfa does not have nitrogen like blood meal but it contains a growth regulator/stimulant called triacontanol and it may help. The thing is, compared to roses, hydrangeas do not react vigorously when given lots of nitrogen so they may do likewise with alfalfa. Stop feeding alfalfa in July 1st as well. So, experiment to see what happens and discontinue when no longer necessary. Remember not go overboard with the blood meal or alfalfa & do not add them starting on/after July 1st. The let us know how the plants did! Luis
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Free for the takin' -- but here's the catch - you have to come 'n get 'em and help me dig them up. I have two large (as in 4') Nikko Blue Hydrangea that flower every year. Ididn't plan well when I planted them and now they're are just too bug for where I have them. So if you live in the Pittsburgh (North Hills - McKnight Road) area, and have a strong helper and a big car, drop me a line. Oh, and PS -- I would love to trade for pretty much anything...
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Luis, Thank you for your suggestion, I may actually try that in the sunny spot. About how much bigger should the pot be? Those they came in are really small pots. I am torn between the two spots I have available because both have some downsides, all things considered. 1. Place #1 may be too sunny and rooty for Nikko. I have some space in the back, as shown here, but it's quite close to the tree trunk. The tree is big but we cut some lower branches, so it doesn't provide any shade until about 5:00pm, with the way the sun is falling at an angle on that bed. This picture was taken later in the day, when the shade finally arrived. Before 5pm, the bed gets hot western sun. So there's root competition, but no shade until pretty late in the day. Will it scorch and wilt? I am not sure how sensitive Hydrangeas are to direct sun in the South, especially afternoon sun. Yet I'd love the blue, showy flowers there in second/third row, because it would add to the other flowers and act as a taller 'filler' for the empty spot, closer to the tree trunk. 2. Place #2 may not have enough sun due too many trees with large canopies in the area. There's only dappled sun there, if at all. I plan to check the sun action tomorrow during the first part of the day, but I am pretty sure there won't be much morning sun for too long. There are three oakleaf hydrangeas in this picture (further in the back) and they all did poorly since they were planted by landscapers in Spring 2020. Now I am trying to figure out why and I am afraid that if I place the Nikkos in that bed (there's more space here), they might have the same fate. Never mind they need more sun than the oakleaf. As for the oakleaf hydrangeas ... now that I am at it: one grew a bit better than the other two, but they all got spots, lose their leaves, and are stunted. Oakleaf 1: This is my better one although I suspect it should look much better and bigger than this in its second year. The other two look pitiful. They lose all leaves and only show some stunted growth at the bottom. When they planted this bed, the landscapers said everything they put there were low maintenance plants for busy people, and will just go on their own. This was certainly true for the dystillum, ferns and Carex but turns out - not applicable to the oakleaves. I recently read they need a lot of water during their first year or two after planting, and I did none of that. Being further in the back, they were pretty much left to fend for themselves. The questions I have are: - Is their pitiful state due to the fact that I did not water them during their first year? - If yes, can they be turned around or does it look like it's too late and they will never do well? - Should I place the Nikko-s in the same area? I do commit to much better watering...but there may be other reasons why they may have the same fate as the Oakleaf types. Thank you so much again!
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ditas
16 years ago
I second Yg's thoughts "On the bright side, the haircut probably will go a long way toward rejuvenating the plant" ... the Nikko may just concentrate on strengthening her roots and stems & buds that will form this year ... who knows mine has just shown another small cluster bud very recently ... we are in similar z!

Hi Jackz411 - How did your few Nikkos do after winterizing Hayseedman's style?
I haven't yet expressed a proper "Thank You" to the thread ... my now, 17y/o Nikko is loaded ... the minuet dance (it seemed) I did for her, paid off - I've never seen her with so many blooms since my kids gave her to me for Mom's Day in 1990! Next year I will concentrate on turning her blue.

'love to hear how yours did.
Ditas
jackz411
16 years ago
Hi Ditas, Nice to hear yours did so well. I will update that thread, I stopped with the unwrapping in late May.

With my 2 old Nikkos (12 yr) about 80% of the canes survived and I have alot of green growth on the canes, but no flowers as of yet. At this point the jury is still out, but this is the first time the canes ever survived a winter. That overwintering thread is a couple pages back, I'll add some new pic's and info soon.

I also used the flat-box method on 2 of my newer Nikkos and they are both growing fines and have 5-7 flowers developing.

One newer Nikko I did not protect and it died back to the ground. I am a little surprised that it also has a few flowers beginning???

I also flat-boxed a young ES and it now has about 3 dozen flowers developing of different sizes.

I need to re-think my corral method on the older Nikkos--glad to hear yours did so well. What date did you remove the protection?
ditas
16 years ago
Hi Jack - Whew it is a scorcher out there ... been dirt digging and giving some haircuts & lecturing to misbehaving, aggressive perennials.

I fought the urge to uncover when we got the too-early, warm-preview of Spring in Mar. Nikko was the ugliest 'baglady' with white tophat out in back (I'll share photos when my son comes to help me pull it from my file) - she was uncovered around Mom's Day ... patience paid off!!! I think I counted 15 clusters the very first to open is now larger than a saucer others are smaller and still others are growing by the day. I didn't fertilize, perhaps I should have.

I used nylon p'hoses to bundle all her woods, dropped pine needles in before wrapping twice around with burlap, encaged her and dropped several bags of dried leaves ala Hayseed's (I used smaller white bags) around and topped her with a large rose-cone hat ... she was a funny sight under the arbor oh, but you should see her now!

Because she lost the dappled shade she depended on when we took an old Locust tree down, she tends to collapse by 4PM - the Sweet Autumn I planted has aggressively climbed the arbor I provided her but not quite all the way to the top so I just water her heavily until she gets some reprieve with Sweet Autumn' shade - quite a cliber she is!

I babied both my pairs of ES and F&E but only 1 of each pair, has blooms and only a couple on each too - I'm a bit disappointed - could it be sun exposure problem?

Ditas

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