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Need help w climbing hydrangea

6 years ago

Hello,,, hoping that someone can help..I've had this climbing hydrangea plant for 8 yrs, ,,has never bloomed...I get a little "tease",,,something that looks like it's gonna bloom but never happens...now it's really looking nasty...should I just rip it out or is there hope ? It gets afternoon sun...photos to follow...thanx ! !

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Comments (5)

tsugajunkie z5 SE WI ♱
6 years ago
Well, 8 years is a bit long without blooms even for climbers. Can you tell us more about its culture? Soil type, watering and where on the planet it is growing, just to name a few?

tj
luis_pr
6 years ago
last modified: 6 years ago
Browning thst starts on the edges of the leaves and "moves" inwards suggests that the shrub needed water and did not get it or did not get enough. As the plant gets larger, it will need more water so tweak your watering amounts or frequencies as soon as you notice browning of leaves (especially during the summer).

The plant may also have aborted blooms (1 and 2) prematurely when it could not absorb enough water. 8 years without blooms sounds long but not for a climbing hydrangea.

The bad and good leaves will soon dry out and fall down on their own so I would leave them alone. Ditto for the rest of the plant. If there are curently dead branches though, you could prune those off.
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hi there, i have 3 climbing hydrangeas, 2 are in their 3rd summer, and one is in it's second summer. the two older ones are on the south side of our (stucco)house, with one getting more sun and one getting a little afternoon shade. the one that gets a little more shade is taking off this year, almost 10-12 ft high. the other one is a little slower, i suspect that the additional sun and a little less water due to it's location might be why. still blooming and happy though, and filling in quite a bit from the bottom this year, but only at about 5 feet. the two year old north sider is also growing, at about 5-6 feet now. i think they are worth the wait, i've seen some big established ones around and they are beautiful. i also have a moonlight schizophragma planted next to the taller of the 3 yr old hydrangeas, and that is taking off, much higher than any of them, and is really beautiful. you may want to plant one of those too, for quicker gratification, and also to "extend" the bloom time, since they tend to bloom a couple of weeks after the hydrangea, and climbs in the same way. i think the combination is really nice too. good luck!
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Dirr in his Manual of Woody Plants says that it's a zone 4-7(8) hardy plant, and then quickly adds that it doesn't do so well in the South. I'd just slowly acclimate your potted hydrangea to the outside. No big deal. I'd also consider leaving it outside next time. You can take it out of the pot and bury the rootball in the ground and then mulch it. I overwinter potted plants like Boxwoods that spend the summer in pots byt digging them into a pile of bark mulch left over from thesummer. Saves the pot and keeps me from having to be concerned about watering or freezing. . This plant is so massive looking that you'd imagine some enormous chimney under all that. In the winter you'd see that it's just a little skinny chimney built out of what looks like concrete blocks. Just a couple feet square at the most. The laterals on the vine are enormous. Hay
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There are some pests that feed off roots so ck for that. You could check the roots for root rot but that usually causes the leaves to be wilted 24/7, even after you water. Since you did not mention that the leaves were wilting, I do not expect that to be a problem but feel free to check to see if they appear rotted. To get root rot, you would need to be watering often, watering a lot and-or have soil that does not drain well, that is, you typically need a soil that stays wet for very long periods of time. If you have sandy soil, you could water daily and not have root rot because the water would drain very well and the soil would not stay wet for long periods of time. An example of watering amounts normal in the Summer would be to water 1.5 gallons of water per shrub when the soil feels almost dry or dry to a depth of 4".
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You haven't given us a lot to go on. Where are you? What is the soil like? What is the light like? Photo? How big is it now? How large was it when planted? What is it growing on? This is a plant that takes a while to reach maturity.
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ophoenix
6 years ago
I am very patient - almost never toss a plant - rescue hydrangeas all the time, but after 8 years, I would get a new plant! lol Now is a good time to find one - many are on sale - find the oldest - biggest - one you can afford. Make sure it has a nursery tag and Plant it in a new spot and hopefully it will bloom in a couple of years.
gardengal48 (PNW Z8/9)
6 years ago
I'm not sure exactly what you were expecting but that hydrangea HAS bloomed - old flowerheads are readily apparent in the first and second photos.

That it produced mostly fertile florets - tiny little flowers - is not at all uncommon with climbing hydrangeas and especially ones that have not yet fully matured. 8 years in the ground is only just the beginning of full establishment for H. petiolaris and folks often wait 5-10 years or more for this climber to flower reliably and consistently. Even then, you are not going to get full, dense flowerheads. Climbing hydrangeas produce lacecap type flowers or flattened corymbs of mostly fertile florets sparsely outlined with the larger, showier sterile florets.

This is what the flowers will look like:

If this is not what you want or expected, by all means move or remove. But your vine has bloomed and should continue to do so going forward.
ophoenix
6 years ago
Gardengal, I am going to get my glasses updated! lol I did not see the dried flower heads but there they are.

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