Can you "lasso" it to get all the leaves temporarily in the center/middle while they paint instead? Tell them to carefully work there when you are present too.

Yes, I can definitely corral things into the middle and out of the way. However, it's also the time of year I should be cutting back, right? If I don't cut back far enough, this plant will just roar back which means more cutting later in the year and into old wood. This plant grows like there's no tomorrow. No feeding other than arbor mulch every spring.

In the northern states, you can wait until the end of July but closer to the South like me, you have to prune by the end of June or you could be cutting off next year's blooms. Where are you located?

Santa Rosa, Sonoma County, CA, 9b I think.

Pruning at the end of June may be safe then. If I prune in the middle of July, I get no blooms. If you had an idea of how much it grows in a given year, you could try pruning accordingly. I am not sure I would necessarily prune a lot of stems all the way down but more like pretend I am cutting someone's long hair and prune selected ones a bit down, some all the way down and cut other branches that grow outwards to see how the remaining stuff looks while trying to maintain the current shape.

Luis, thanks. That's kind of my current pruning method. Each stem gets done a little differently. This plant grows a LOT each year. I am always cutting it back and it just keeps growing more. That's why I thought I'd cut a little more than usual so I'd be able to let it grow afterwards.

Hoovb, I think my painter is of the first type. Even so, I want to trim my plant with an eye toward good blooms next year.

Hoovb - thanks, that is really a great trick! Quick and easy way to get plants out of the way for painters. Also a good way to wrap a large plant or shrub for easy moving and leaving the cover on for 12 - 24 hours would help prevent transplant shock.

Typically, one would treat the pruning of oakleaf hydrangeas the same way you do macs - little to none :-) Generalizing about the time of year to do so can be very risky........pruning either macs or oakleafs in July in the PNW would be catastrophic as the plants are just beginning their bloom cycle, which will continue on well into September. In more southerly or warmer climates, that may work but you really need judge the proper timing by when your plants are in bloom.

Gardengal, thanks. My plant has been in bloom since around March, I think. There are a few blooms totally hidden in the photo I posted. I would say they are about done. If I didn't prune my plant, it would engulf the window and encroach into my entryway. I wish I had the space to just let it grow unimpeded, but I don't have that choice. I've had a number of plants, chosen by a landscape architect, that became monsters in my small yard and had to be removed, e.g., a miscanthus than became gargantuan, despite my helper's best efforts.

March? Ah, mine too. They are starting to change bloom colors now from white to green!

Luis, some of the leaves are colossal. This is like an evergreen plant, some leaves will turn all the deep fantastic colors, while the rest of the plant stays green and growing...all year round.

After several years of drought, this winter we got twice the average rainfall. Looks like it killed my flowering cherry though, which I figure had fairly good drainage. Oh well, something else I need to address.

Linelle, in your climate, you can probably get away with pruning as you wish :-) My sister lived in SoCal for years with macs and she could prune them any time she felt like it without impacting the flower production - they bloomed almost continuously all year except for a short period in midwinter. Not the case in many other locations!!

FWIW, as a landscape designer with clients that overwhelming want low maintenance gardens, I avoid suggesting plants or placing them where they would require routine pruning to keep size in check. Unless you don't mind all the attention this plant requires, I'd consider replacing it with a dwarf or compact variety that will stay size appropriate for the space. A standard sized oakleaf hydrangeas wants to be a BIG shrub - 8'x8' is typical and often quite a bit larger.

Gardengal, where I live we're hotter and colder than SoCal which tends to have a more moderate temp.

The first year I had this oakleaf, I didn't know it bloomed on old wood, so I cut it back at the wrong time. The next year there were zero blooms. I learned my lesson (I think) but the following year there was nothing until September. That at least gave me hope. Since then I've pruned with caution and it continues to bloom, although this year not as many as in the past.

I realize this plant wants to be very big, but I'm quite fond of it, unlike some other plants I've had no regrets removing. For now I don't mind giving this one a little extra attention and love. If it ever reaches a point of diminishing returns, measured in blooms, I'll reconsider. It's very hearty and stands up to the late afternoon blast of sun from the west.

I'm a big fan of oakleafs. I never had great luck with macs.

Oakleafs are my faves as well :-)) A four season shrub compared to other hydrangeas, as the fall colored foliage hangs on through winter and the rough, cinnamon colored peeling bark is attractive when midwinter foliage is sparse. I tend to use them in my designs more frequently than any other type as they really require the most minimal of care of any hydrangea species and are not very fussy about siting.

I don't even know much about the attractive bark because all those leaves are in the way.

Every time I cut it back I think, oh no, now you've really gone too far. And then I turn around and it's all grown back. Like a too-short haircut you think you'll never survive. ;-)

Her hee hee! I go to some nearby gardens (to get my mom to exercise) and they have these huge Oakleaf Alice hydrangeas. I finally saw the bark change there in winter. Like you said, huge leaves too but my oakleafs hide the bark with leaves in selected (most) years. The smallest always looses the leaves but I always fail to look at its bark because it is near some Crape Myrtles that also do that bark change and I always fixate on them and forget to look at Ruby Slippers due to taller evergreens that block the hydrangea a little. PeeWee also stays fully dressed in winter but others in the back may let me see the bark change one of these years. I think I saw some of their bark this year because its leaves dried out on top but the bottom ones stayed green a tad longer. Made me panic thinking it was a watering issue during winter but the soil felt moist.

Gardengal48, please elaborate on the designs that you mentioned!