Fall / Winter Care for Endless Summer Hydrangea

17 years ago

I have 2 endless summer hydrandeas that I have had for 2 seasons now. I didn't do anything with them over the fall and winter last year. In the spring I cut the dead flowers, as they looked terrible in the spring. Well, one came back well. The other not so well. I would like to know how to care for them in the fall/winter and what to do in the Spring. I don't think what I did this Spring worked very well???

I would also like to take some clippings to pot for the winter - give away in the spring. Is there a good way to do this?

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Comments (7)

ostrich
17 years ago
My 3 Endless Summer have come back very well for 2 seasons now. All I did was to apply a lot of fallen leaves and mulch over the plants before winter, and then clean up during spring. Now, the only thing that really damaged my ES this spring were the late frosts.

Are yours in a windy location? Mine are in a pretty sheltered location that faces east.
penny1124
17 years ago
I have had my ES Hydrangea 2 years now and this year i had very little blooms and almost all the leaves have black spots on them . PLEASE HELP. I have never planted anything before and i dont know how to fix the problem. thanks Penny
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I planted 4 hydrangeas at my old place about 7 years ago. They never bloomed. I have 2 nikko blues, a lace cap and another that was gave to me (I'm not sure what it is). We still own that property so I dug 3 of them up and brought them to the new house early this spring. At the old place I had them planted in a front bed and they stayed damp all the time (it was a trailer with no guttering), they even had mossy looking stuff growing around them. Here, I cut all the dead off of them and put them in a nice shady spot and they have done great. I haven't put any fertilizer on them, just water. One is blooming now, a nice deep purply blue and the other two have gotten really nice big leaves but no blooms. The lace cap has white edges on one side of the plant but the other is side is all green. Any pointers on what I need to do with it? I still have the one at the rental place I'm wanting to get but it's overgrown with an old rambling rose and it's so hot right now I guess I'll wait until fall to get it. My mom always told me about/used the rusty nail trick too. Is it acid that gives the blue color and alkaline that gives the pink color or the other way around? I can't remember. An old neighbor I had used to put pennies in her soil too but I can't remember why.
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You don't want to do anything yet. Wait until later in early spring to determine what is truly dead wood - it will be a pale brownish tan color and will produce no viable buds. This can be removed. Otherwise there is no need to prune anything, although with ES you can prune should you feel the need to limit size or otherwise shape the plant. In zone 8, hydrangeas really do not need any winter care - they are deciduous and will go through a typical period of dormancy, loosing leaves and looking like a collection of dead sticks :-) Nothing to worry about. If early spring frosts are predicted, I might consider providing some light cover or protection to avoid bud damage - otherwise you can just let 'em do their thing without interference.
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Usually, you do not need to prune hydrangeas. If the plant was placed in a location where it can grow to its size at maturity, pruning will not be needed often. In general, you want to prune to remove dead wood; to rejuvenate an old plant; for safety reasons; for aesthethic reasons (one stem grows more than the others); to create a standard hydrangea tree-like shape (usually done with paniculatas). ES is rebloomer hydrangea. As all hydrangeas that bloom on old wood only, ES develops flower buds in the Fall. If the stems and the buds survive winter in your area then these would develop blooms in Spring. But after that flush of blooms or if the stems dry out during winter, ES will develop new flower buds and bloom some time after the first flush. The longer your growing season is, the more flushes of blooms you can have. Deadheading (not the same as pruning) will help ES produce more blooms; maybe this is what they were talking about in the video. See the link to the Endless Summer Website below. Luis Here is a link that might be useful: ES Website: Care and growing tips
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@luis_pr Thank you so very much for the info! I have seen people plant ES on the ground in the spring and dig up and put in a pot and bring inside for the winter. For me, it is almost not possible. 1, the plants are very big now, 3 ft wide and tall, as I bought the 4 gallon ones in the spring. oh well. 2, too much trouble for me and too much shock for the plant. 3, i dont have indoor space and big enough window to give them the light to keep them happy insdie. Artificial light is too much set up again. SO after some search, i will be use the cardboard box method, i think. Here are tentative steps: please help me better this process if something wrong in the procedure lol. Zone 3/4, Edmonton 1) After tree leaves fall, collect leaves in plastic bags. 2) When ES hydrangea leaves are brown and dried, covered them with a cardboard box, fill in dried leaves. 3) Tape the top of the cardboard box, to seal. 4) Secure the bottom with rocks or garden staples. 5) Wrap the box with brown burlap. 6) Wrap again the box with black landscape fabric, to absorb warmth from the sun. 7) Sit for the winter to be over, hopefully lots of snow cover. 8) Remove protection around last spring frost, on May 15 ish. 9) If Frost come back after the fact. using white drop cloth for temporary cover. I also attached a pic of my blue ES (the original) in my yard this year. Isn't this blue out of this world!
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phyl345
17 years ago
all i do to protect my endless summer is mulch with shredded leaves in the fall...soon....

they come back just fine, but no blooms since early june!!! what kind of endless is THAT!
IanW Zone 5 Ont. Can.
17 years ago
The first thing I think about when a plant is not doing well is the soil it is planted in. The soil is the "soul" of the plant. Gets its nourishment to produce a healthy plant. Next, is to ask yourself about the site....enough sun?....too much?...Endless summer requires protection from mid-day sun, so a semi-shaded area for part of the day is best. Keep it well watered (especially during hot spells), amend the soil with compost or fertilize the plant in early spring and again in early summer.

Check out this website. It references "Endless Summer" types and may answer other questions.

Cheers
Ian

Here is a link that might be useful: hydrangea
ego45
17 years ago
I'll tell you what I did and then decide if it is suitable for you.
First, I'm in a warmer end of z6 and only on a rare ocassion all buds of 30+ macrophyllas I grow got killed.
So, I didn't protect any of them and had no serious reason to grow ES since there are many much more interesting hydtangeas.
However, I had one particular spot in a garden where macs don't want to bloom even after relatively warm winters.
Problem with this spot is that it's in a full sun the whole winter and early spring and then become part-shaded as season progresses.
What usually happens there is that hydrangeas buds start swelling very early and got zupped by March frosts.
I planted three ES there last year and usual thing happened again even though we had an unusually warm winter.
On April 1 I pruned all three of them to 6-8" off the ground leaving two pairs of live buds on a stem.
By July they produced a lot of new growth from the old stems as well as from the base.
First bloom occured on or about August 1, 4 months after pruning, on a new growth from the old stems and since then they are in a CONSTANT bloom because new growth from the base also produced flower buds, but 1-1.5 months later than the first set.
This picture was taken last week.
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As you can see, right now I have a combo of aged (pink), semi-aged and new(blue) flowers on a same plant.
Though plants are only 2'+ tall (no wonder with such severe spring pruning) I finally made hydrangeas bloom in that spot.
How all this should be translated to z5?
Unless you want to go a long way to protect current year top growth and have a mid-summer bloom, you may instead simply settle for the late-summer bloom on a new growth and do nothing, except mulching to protect the root zone..
Before ES was invented you had no luxury to chose the bloom time.
Now you do.
patsums
17 years ago
ego, I found your post interesting becaue of the timing. Last April I purchased an Endless Summer that had the aged (pink-tan) flowers. I cut them off potted up the plant. Here in FL it is too warm to plant a hydrangea in April in the ground, unless of course you can stand over it with the hose at least 12 hours a day!! It has been sitting on the pool deck, only getting bright filtered light
most of the day. It gets watered when needed...alas, I have NEVER had my own flower:( I'm getting ready to plant it in the ground now, but I'm wondering what I could do to encourage some buds.
ego45
17 years ago
Well, there are many unknown in your story, but in general...
There are many thousands of hydrangea plants forced into bloom for the two specific commercial events: Easter and Mother's Day sales.
Those plants are not ment to be a long lived or be a good performers in a long run. They are essentially ment to be just annuals. Growers looking for one and only attribute of the plant: flowers. Therefore, by using fertilizers with high phosphorus content and other tricks they grow plants with inferior root and branch systems, but with humongous flowers that will drain out all plant's energy. That is why you bought in APRIL hydrangea with already AGED flowers.
You did a right thing by cutting them off and repotting the plant, but it was exhausted and no way it was able to produce another set of flowers. The whole summer under your TLC plant was working on establishing decent root system and be ready for the new life the very next year.
Good luck.

Fall / Winter Care for Endless Summer Hydrangea

Comments (7)

ostrich

penny1124

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