Judy,

Is this your first season for hydrangeas? I'm asking mainly about macrophyllas. I ask this because I was wondering if you had them planted last winter when we dipped down into the 30s and if you did, did you protect them from the frost/freezes?.....yg

YG, I planted 30 macrophyllas last August. Most were in 1 gallon pots. They grew like crazy and I didn't do a thing to them over the winter. Of course, we didn't have a freeze here in Sanford. They bloomed their mopheads off in May and June. They're big, bushy plants now and show no signs of slowing down. judy

The reason I ask is because you stated "the chances of flower buds being frozen are practically nil" and this is not exactly true.

One of the reasons you don't see many folks growing hydrangeas down here is because they assume the same thing as you stated and when they don't get flowers the following season they give up and call them 'not reliable bloomers here'. They don't realize that next seasons blooms are set this summer/fall. Ever here people complain about their Azaleas being unreliable bloomers? It's pretty much for the same reasons. a) They instinctively try to prune them in fall or spring and b) Because we are in zone 9, our hydrangea buds don't necessarily harden or go fully dormant the way they do up north, so people will cover their tender tropicals but leave the tender hydrangea and azalea buds to get nipped by the frost.

Remember, what kills the buds most is a sudden change of temperature, not necessarily just the level of temperature. Therefore if we are going along at 70 to 80 degrees in December (not only are the buds tender but I still have some blooms on the plants then) and then all of a sudden the temp drops to 32 degrees and then back up in the daytime to 70 again, this can kill some or all of the buds. This is why they grow best in maritime conditions like Cape Cod were the temps surely get cold but they don't fluctuate so radically. When the weather report calls for frost or freeze I cover mine. I invest too much time and sweat in them to take the chance. Although because our season is so long, and new buds are developing all the time, you might still get late season blooms if they happened to get nipped.

Which brings me to the ES topic. I, for one, don't think ES is an exceptional plant in any way except for it's ability to give northern gardeners a chance to enjoy a blue/pink mophead, so I generally recommend that people in more ideal zones (7 - 9) spend less money on more interesting and unique cultivars. Having said that, I saw them at Lukas Nursery and picked up a couple, more as an experiment than anything else. (all the hype and curiosity got the better of me) I don't think we will get better performance than we do from the Nikkos (how could we?) but maybe about the same or possibly worse. I read somewhere that they did not do well in the southeast. Time will tell. So far this year my Nikkos continue to bloom, some of my other cultivars are getting ready to bloom again (new stem buds are opening like crazy, last year I had a great re-bloom in October) but my ES are doing NOTHING, NADA, ZIP, no signs of a single flower bud yet. I was hoping they would be some kind of evergreen year round bloomer for us down here and prove me wrong!! It's still too soon to tell for sure so I'll let you know how they progress.....yg

Hmmmm. Sounds like I had "beginners' luck", YG. I've spent the last 40 years gardening in South Florida, so, no doubt, I have a lot to learn about gardening in Zone 9, rather than Zone 10. My obsession for the past 18 years has been orchids, and I don't bring them in or cover them unless a freeze is predicted. (The phalaenopsis, dendrobiums and vandaceous orchids, which are all very cold sensitive, *do* come in when the temperature goes down in the 50*'s, however. Cattleyas can take a little frost unless they're in bud or flowering.)//My "Hydrangea Guru" has been my neice in Upstate SC, where I grew up. She has a yard full of mopheads and Annabelles, and she doesn't do anything to protect hers over the winter and they bloom like crazy. Of course, hers don't leaf out as early as ours do down here, but they do bloom about the same time. I guess the folks up there haven't read that hydrangeas don't do well in the southeast. They do *very* well there. Theoretically, the bumblebee isn't supposed to be able to fly, either. :-> I suspect people in the Blue Ridge have problems with buds getting nipped, though, so E.S. is probably a good choice for them.// In So/Fl, we set out non-deciduous plants in June so the summer rains can do the watering for us, but, as I said earlier, we don't 'do' hydrangeas down there.// I can use all the advice you're willing to give, so keep the tips coming, por favor. ...judy

Judy,

South Carolina has ideal hydrangea growing conditions. They have an Autumn for the plants to wind down, harden the buds and get ready for winter, then they have a reasonably mild winter and then they have a decent Spring for the buds to become tender and start waking up again and then of course Summer to bloom. We don't have such gradual stages. Our plants don't get a real Autumn to harden their buds to the winter cold. We just go from Summer to Winter and back again in a matter of days, leaving the plants unprepaired for the "frost warnings" that come out of nowhere. Last February we only had 2 nights of frost/freeze warnings so covering up the plants wasn't such a big deal. (we never actually reached any lower than 33 degrees at my house and still I lost a couple of terminal buds on the uppermost portion of the plant, not that anyone but me would notice) When I asked the garden center manager at Lowes where the hydrangeas were located, he said to me "oh, so you don't want blooms next year? tee hee" (What a genious). But that gives you some idea of the Floridian mentality. For the most part, if you can't throw it in the ground, clip it into a ball,(or the shape of mouse ears) and forget about it, they are not interested nor very informed about them. We are on the very high end of the macrophylla hardiness zone range and zone 6, the low end, has it's own set of bloom issues, but ideal zones 7 and 8 have the easiest time of it so it comes as no surprise that your niece can probably neglect hers a bit and still get fantastic results. I'm not sure where you heard that hydrangeas don't do well in the southeast because they absolutely thrive in the southeast. (just not so much in central Florida, it being just a small portion of the most southern end of it) My comment referred only to ES and it was written by someone here on the forum which doesn't make it absolute but rather only one person's input. Again, time will tell, so far, lots of green but nothing else......yg

UPDATE:

Well, finally (October 12th) my ES are full of (good sized) flower buds that I suspect will be fully open in about a week. They are both under tree canopies and protected from mid-day sun, but the one that gets a little extra slanted sun in late afternoon has a bloom bud on every single stem while the other more shaded one has some flower buds too but it has much deeper and larger foliage. They are both leafed out nicely (as in Spring) with no leaf drop or fungus like some of my others start to get this time of year. Since they were just planted in early September, it is not fair to judge this performance as 'normal'. Next seasons performance will more accurately tell the story of ES in central Florida, but so far, so good......yg

I don't mean to intrude. I've been enjoying the interesting conversation. I know it must be extremely difficult to even find hydrangeas for sale down there. Just curious as to whether the same advice applies to Oakleaf hydrangeas or wild hydrangeas, both native to your state, or if they bloom reliably with less effort and protection?

And I usually make this offer just for trees but if there's a type of hydrangea that you want and can not find down there I'll be happy to look around for it here and arrange to ship it to you. There's oodles and oodles of hydrangeas here and I never really paid attention to them until recently. They are still very much full of flowers. From what I read they go dormant very late in the season even up here when fall occurs during the fall. That might explain the risks you would encounter in your climate.

HGSB,

My yard is pretty much as full of hydrangeas as it can get right now but thanks for the offer.

While Oakleafs are native to Florida, they are only native to the (colder) panhandle of Florida and not down here in central Florida. However, I was not planning to protect mine (eventually they will be too large for that anyway) as I believe (hoping) they are not as sensitive as the macrophyllas and mine are located in very protected spots of the yard. I think they will be ok, but we will have to get a real frost/freeze to know for sure......yg

I live in Lakeland, between Orlando and Tampa. I have several well established mopheads, (type that turns blue or pink depending on soil. I also have several that are dark marroon in color that are smaller. All of these get too much sun during the summer so I get blooms in the spring then the bushes look terrible as the blooms turn brown and the leaves wither from the daily rain and the heat. I want to move some of the smaller ones to an area under my oak tree where I have some other younger bushes planted. These do better as far as heat but haven't boomed too well (this was their second summer). I do have a huge Oakleaf that loves it in the same area.

Anyway, my question is: I have been told to do the moving in Feb. but I really would like to take advantage of this nice weather and was hoping that do it now might help me get some blooms next year. I haven't trimmed any of them and usually don't. What would your advice be?

Also, everyone says theirs are still blooming. I only see a few scattered tiny flowers but no big blooms. If I don't move them, should I still feed them?

Mboston,

Now is a great time to move them as they won't have to contend with that stressful heat while they are trying to get re-established and any kind of frost/freeze, if we get one, is still a good way off. One thing to remember however, is to position them according to Summer lighting conditions not Fall or Spring conditions. (learned that the hard way)

No doubt about it, macrophyllas set blooms better in the sun than in the shade, but down here unfortunately, the results tend to be as you have experienced, blooms that last about 5 minutes then burn up along with the leaves. Of course, if your oak tree provides shade that is too dense, you will have great looking plants without a ton of blooms. (this does not apply to Oakleafs, as they will bloom in shade) The happy medium (if you can get it) is for the sun to reach them until about 10:00 (summer time) and then have the tree provide some shade for the better part of the afternoon or plant them in a place (like an east or north facing foundation) where they will get protection from the eaves of the house, still get plenty of light but no direct sun ie: bright shade. Dappled all day filtered sun under a tall tree would be great too.

I would be remiss if I didn't mention the word "water" about a hundred times as there is nothing more essential to happy hydrangeas in Florida, than daily watering during the summer.

I usually give mine their last feeding around labor day but with our long growing season and sandy soil, you can feed them until they are about to go dormant. (Nov?) Not all macrophyllas are alike so some of mine look like they are done for the season and others like my Nikko types, Endless Summer and Lilacina are still going strong and might well benefit from another dose of fertilizer. I would add however, that the ones that look best right now, are the ones that get the least amount of summer sun stress if that tells you anything. The ones that tend to wilt on a daily basis (regardless of water) are the ones that look pretty shabby right now. (all other conditions being equal).

If your yard is anything like mine, there are not as many ideal spots as there are hydrangeas I want to have, so if I had to choose between a spot that was a little too sunny or one that was a little too shady, I would opt for the shadier spot any day.

Hope this helps. Good luck.....yg

Thanks for the info. I am an avid butterfly gardener and I need the sunny space for my host and nectar plants but I hate giving up my hydrangeas totally. I have had some of them for about 12 years now. The big ones I will have to forgo but my smaller ones will be able to be transplanted, I hope.