You could also aim to remove the cages about two weeks after your average date of last frost. Most times you will be ok. In years with mild winters, see how the weather forecast is and remove the cages early if it will be warm. Just try to make sure that your shrubs will not be hit by a late frost that zaps the new tender leaves.

Consider going into a website like weather.com and see a long term forecast for 10 or 14 days after your average date of last frost. It should give you a feel for wether it would be safe to remove the cages or not. For example, if the temps appear to be much above freezing at night then it may be safe. If temps are close to freezing then play it safe and keep them caged. Always expect the unexpected with weather forecasts! LOL!!! :o)

I HATE this game..have some pots in a shed..such a hassle to move..will be 68 today but until about the middle of May it's not safe..so I open the door during the day for light and air..I would wait if I were you..pic from a week or so ago

Thanks! If I don’t get bloom this year, after all the
trouble I went through, I’m going to be seriously frustrated.

Blame the Missouri Botanic
Garden:
when I saw their hydrangea collection in heavy bloom, I was hooked. Of course I
was not there to see what THEY did to protect them, and also they are in Zone
6. I am in 5B.

I should probably keep all
new purchases to less tender varieties. Says the person who just bought 4 more,
very young ones, on sale. Which now I will have to pot, and shuffle in and out, like nicholsworth.

linnea..just took these pics..they've grown..these hydrangeas give me more grief than ALL of my other plants combined..really UNFAIR if I don't get blooms..

I know! :( Ultimately mine will be in the ground. but it looks like I will have to pot them up til I can. I should cut out the impulse purchases.

If it's a help, any plants I will be moving in and out go into the garden cart so I just have to pull it in and out. That is once it's warm enough in my garage - we haven't gotten even close to that yet as my garage isn't sealed from the outdoors.

NHBabs..good idea!..my neighbor does that with some houseplants on an old kitchen cart..her plants are much smaller..I bought a great garden wagon last year but it would only hold 2-3..I was considering it..then just crammed them in the shed..I need a bigger shed and a bigger wagon!

bought four more? funny, linnea!!!! LOL! wish I had shady space for more! Ha! :o)

The caged hydrangeas are budding out. Some I can see just by
pushing a few leaves aside. Some are totally buried and I don’t even know where
the stems are under the leaves. I am imagining them, pale yellow, putting out
weak growth wondering where the sun is. It’s warm this weekend, 60’s, but this
is atypical. It’s a good 6 weeks to our last frost date!

I don’t know what to do!!!

We’ve had a lot of rain too, so those leaves in the cage are
sodden once you go down a bit. I feel like I’ve got to pull them off. Do I take
off and then put back if needed? What a lot of work!

I think the answer is for hydrangeas that are planted in the ground:

don't buy any that are not hardy to at least one zone colder than yours. :(

Don't buy any that bloom on old wood :(

Go ahead and do the above if you are willing to jump through hoops, and maybe still not get any bloom.

Bah, humbug....

I would leave them (the cages) alone for now but I would also start monitoring weather services that give long term forecasts of 2 weeks of more. When they get close to your age date of last frost, review the temp forecasts again and remove the cages if you think it will be warm and the chance of frost afterwards appears low. It is tempting to remove the cages but a lot can happen in 6 weeks. I took out some tropical plants ear!y one year... 3 times... but the temps kept going down and up so much (and I kept bring them outside, inside, outside...) that I had to quit it.

Linnea - I did the same this year. I caged them with leaves and took the cages off two weeks ago because the new growth was very yellow and I didn't want to kill them with too little sunlight and dampness. Within a few days they started to turn much greener. I put blankets on them two nights ago when temps went down to 32 degrees. They are doing REALLY well considering my zone. There is a lot more growth at the bottom and the old wood is all greener (underneath the brown hard covering) than usual. Last year, I did the flatten with cardboard method and they did much better (lots of blooms) than the year prior when I did nothing. But the cage method seems to be working even better. I have also learned not to cut dead wood until end of May. All of the old wood may look dead, but will start to come out of their "shells" by end of May.

I
did end up pulling out some of the leaves right next to the stems on Alice and my
2 new last year Nikko Blue sticks, and putting the leaves in a trash can, where
I can put them back in the cages if needed. I unburied just right next to the stem, which makes a
sort of pocket that is exposed. From a distance you can’t even see that I have
unburied anything.

Alice’s tallest stem that couldn’t be caged (it was
4 ½ feet tall) I had wrapped in burlap.
I kept that on. All were well budded out for about the entire length of the
stem that had been buried. We had another 4 or so inches of rain in the last 2
days.

In
another area I have 2 Twist and Shout and a small lemon Daddy caged. Those are
on the NW side of the house, but it is not very exposed. I have not gotten to
uncovering those at all. Too much yard work in the spring!

Freezing
is my threshold temperature for keeping leaves on / putting them back against the
stems?

I have a compact oakleaf called Pee Wee that in mild years does not loose its leaves. I leave those on the plant and it eventually gets rid of the old leaves on its own. I am not sure exactly when it does but it does that well after the new leaves have leafed out.

Because of their size, oakleaf and paniculatas that are caged may have some stems (at the top, like yours) unprotected by the cage. Luckily, their wood seems to be quite winter hardy and makes it through unaffected in my mild & regular winters but if it does not, you can prune dead sections if necessary.

You can re-cage and re-protect again if you see temps freezing again. Or throw something over the shrub (if it is a mild drop). But I would just leave them caged as I get tired of doing/undoing/redoing/etc. The most I do is refill the cage with leaves if I have mulch/leaves. Ha! :o) The lower the temps go, the more actions I would consider taking.

I think so too! Looks good!

I go more for slow release, general purpose fertilizers, like a Osmocote with a 10-10-10 NPK Rating since that Miracle Gro needs to be reapplied often (some MGs have to be applied weekly or every 2 weeks and I think MGB is one of those). I use any 10-10-10 (or close) slow release general purpose fert that I can find about monthly to month-and-a-half in potted plants. For those planted on the ground, I apply that once and it is good for the whole year. I also use cottonseed meal if I happen to have some.

If you see leaf out near the end of the stems, that would suggest that there is hope for seeing blooms this year as the invisible flower buds at the end of the stems probably did not get killed if the leaves near the ends also made it!!! Just watch out for late frosts.

You can water them "as usual" for this time of the year if the soil feels dry when you insert a finger into the soil to a depth of 4". Do not let the soil get dry (obviously) as this can make the plant abort the flower buds.

Looks good. I am knocking on wood for you!!!

luis..they were out in some heavy rain yesterday and they looked better to me this morning..after just 1 rain!..there's just a hairline of brown on very few leaves..probably a bit too cold once they were sitting "naked" in the shed..but I'm hopeful..will look for fertilizer soon..and will keep tabs on the temperature..

Depending on when you last fertilized, how much and how much the plant has consumed, it may not be needed just yet. The shrubs' fully opened leaves, if low of minerals, would probably start doing things like turning all yellow, including the leaf veins. Indicating nitrogen issues for example.

One way I used to ck with some potted tropicals was to do a soil test using a soil test kit. A cheapo soil test at that, not a very exact kit but... all I cared was for it to tell me if it thought nitrogen (or any of the other minerals that it tested for) was low.

I noticed yesterday that the tip of my Alice
– that long stem that was covered with burlap and not buried in leaves as it
was too tall – is shriveled: but the rest of the stem much lower down is
budding out heavily. Does that mean no flowers for me?

I don’t know where the flowers
appear on these oakleaf types: the only time I saw any in bloom, I was not
paying attention to details – just saw enough that I went and bought one the
following season. Or do those buds on the sides of that stem potentially bloom?

The flowers appear at or very near the end of the stems. There are some "back up" flower buds in hydrangeas that may activate if the ends are affected so you might still have a bloom in the tip of an Alice.

Hard to tell without a picture. Not sure if the "shriveled" part is actually a bloom coming out or what so, keep an eye until it gets bigger. It may take a panicled form as it gets bigger. Here are some pics of buds; thanks to the photographers!

http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3329/3641703353_8c03211a9d_z.jpg

https://johntheplantman.files.wordpress.com/2012/04/oakleaf-hydrangea-early-flower-bud.jpg

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_UdIftRLT2AY/Snt3D0ydfMI/AAAAAAAABc0/6Z3ZPb8bZ_E/s400/090819OakleafHydleaves.jpg

I am still waiting to uncage. We had freezing temps two nights ago. May be more to come.

Thanks. This Alice only had 2 stems to begin
with, which is all it had when I bought it 2+ years ago. The other stem was
fully under the leaves. So maybe even with the caging with leaves, I may not
get bloom on the tall stem that was only wrapped with burlap.

At some point I need to prune this to induce branching lower
down. Though I know it needs to wait til after bloom: since I have never had
any bloom, and don’t know when they are SUPPOSED to bloom, I’ve missed the
window of pruning opportunity since I have had it.

Ideally, I want a multi-branched plant.

Thanks for the pics, too. It’s good to know what to look
for. I will leave it alone for now and see what develops. The budding out on
the stems that were covered is very good. So at least I’ve got that, and the
potential for good growth this season. If it turns out that there are no buds
on that tall stem, I might just chop it to the level of the other stem and hope
for branching.

Alice and the oakleaf hydrangeas develop their invisible flower buds between July (here) and August (further north) so if you ever need to prune (typically not needed unless there are dead stems(, prune after they have bloomed but before July (in the south) or August (in the north).

I removed the leaves from the cages this week. There are lots of buds starting to green and swell.

I removed the leaves from the cages this week. There are lots of buds starting to green and swell.

It will be cold the next 3 nights, lower 40's to mid 30's. I just pushed the leaves back over this evening! I wonder how often I might have to move leaves around.

Keep the wire cage until the rabbits have better things to eat.

Our area has so many rabbits and yet I have never noticed them consume hydrangea.

Linnea and Mnwsgal - are your buds and new growth green or yellow? I took the leaves/cages off a few weeks ago and wish I hadn't. Most of my old growth is brittle now versus when I took them off all the buds were green and swelling. The reason I took them off so early was because the growth at the bottom was SO yellow/white and looking sickly.

It's green. But, I moved the leaves aside about 3 weeks ago to expose the stems. Any budding that is far down that I can't see must be yellow.

The cages are large, as I have 2 plants in each cage. So, I was able to move the leaves to the outside of the wire, making what looks like an inverted cone of open space around each plant. If you can visualize that. For the cold snap I just moved the leaves back around the stems, and threw a sheet over the whole thing.

Rouge, my ravenous rabbits eat the bark off many things!

Linnea56 - have you removed the leaves yet?? How does the plant look? Pic?

Kristen..could your hydrangea be Forever & Ever Together?

It's cold again. lower 40's. Not cold enough to use the sheet; as a matter of fact we've had probably 3" of rain in the last day, so I think a wet sheet would have been a bad idea.

The leaves are still there, though I did not push them around the stems again.

I have another cluster that is still totally covered. After the rain finally stops they will be totally sodden, and I'd better get them off.

I am SICK of looking at these cages! Everything around them is glorious, and right front-and-center is an ugly cage full of leaves. Lowest temp due next 3 days is 37 degrees at night. Last frost date is STILL 5 weeks away. If 32 is my threshold, then I am taking these things OFF in a day or so. I will use a sheet over them if need be.

OK, here we go, time to move on...there are so many Hys out there that don't need winter protection...I for one am tired of worrying about Temps, have done it all ...have 40+ Hys ..LOL I'm just getting old & grumpy

Unfortunately I didn't know all this when I bought them, or I'd not have bothered. Though I'd read "blooms on old wood" not long after starting to research them, what that really meant was that all buds would be killed in my zone without going to great lengths to protect them. Which no one is any nursery tells you. The nurseries around here are FULL of the "wrong" kind, sadly. And not a word on the tag to tell you that your expensive shrub will never bloom.

It appears that none of the buds or stems survived. New growth is coming from the bottom. Doubt I will cage ES this fall.

so sorry..I don't blame you giving up on caging..and mine never bloomed on new wood either..have yours?

I took the cages off 4 today, only 1 of which was large (Alice). 3 of the 4 have leafed out VERY well. 1 of the 2 small Nikko blue "sticks" from last year only had leaves at the bottom, despite the protection. The other looks very full.

Still it took over an HOUR to get the cages off and all the sodden leaves out and picked off from in between the stems.

None of these have EVER bloomed.

The remaining 3 tomorrow.

linnea..happy for you that 3 of your uncovered plants are doing well..what a pain huh?..post some pics someday..

My phone stopped taking pictures, so it's been a challenge. My digital camera is much more trouble to upload. Good luck with your plants.

hyed, I'm with you. I just uncaged my Forever and Ever and picked out the leaves. Forever and Ever is supposed to be hardy here but it doesn't flower unless I cage it. My back is killing me. I'm sick and tired of babying this thing. It's getting shoveled if it doesn't shape up on its own.

Nicholsworth, I do get blooms from new growth but not as many.

mnwsgal..that's great..I never had even one :-( it's comforting to read this forum and know that I'm not the only one that's struggled with macrophylla hydrangeas..

Here's the status on my mophead hydrangeas. I took a photo of one of the three. These are late bloomers for sure. It seems that so far my results this year (caged) compared to last year (flatten with cardboard) are fairly the same. However, my initial results were much better with the caged method. I think I just uncovered them too early. I tried SO hard to hold off!

Kristen..looks good!..did you ever look in my comment above to see if any of those hydrangeas look like yours?

I must have missed your previous comment. I think you are right! I just looked up all the details and I'm pretty sure they are exactly Forever and Evers. Who knew! Thanks for sharing that! Kind of bummed they are a smaller growing variety... but they are beautiful in bloom.

Looks good but I would amend the soil a little; the leaves on the picture look like they have iron chlorosis. You could try some greensand, garden sulphur, aluminum sulfate, liquid acidifier compounds, etc. I would also add some mulch.

I share your last comment.. it is sooooo hard trying to decide when to remove the winter protection!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I try to wait 2 weeks after my avge date of last frost but Mother Nature works off a different calendar...

So my uncaged Forever and Ever came through the winter with loads of flower buds. However, it also has some scale, this is a new one for me, any suggestions on how to treat?

Cottony scale can be treated using horticultural soap and oils:

https://extension.umd.edu/hgic/cottony-camellia-scale-shrubs

http://homeguides.sfgate.com/white-speckled-fungus-hydrangeas-34056.html