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Landscape Design Hydrangeas garden

Pruning Hydrangeas twice?

5 years ago

Hi there! I have three limelight hydrangea bushes in my front yard. Every summer they grow MASSIVE and block a prominent window in my living room. Every late winter/early spring I think I prune the heck out of them, but it's never enough. I pruned them about three weeks ago, and now I'm realizing it's not going to be enough. They seem to grow on both new AND old wood, and they're very hardy.

Am I able to prune them twice? I'm not concerned about killing the bushes, I'm more concerned about not have any blooms. Little leaves are starting to show this week.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

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Comments (5)

gardengal48 (PNW Z8/9)
5 years ago
An established and mature Limelight hydrangea is a big shrub! 6-8 tall (possibly more) and 6-8' wide. Even hard pruning will result in regrowth in a single season to the mature size.

You can prune them pretty much as hard and as often as you like - the shrub will tolerate it fine - but pruning after growth begins in spring is liable to remove any flowering potential - these bloom on new wood.

It sounds like maybe these should be relocated to another area of your garden and replaced with a smaller growing cultivar.....like perhaps Little Lime, that gets about half that size :-)
NHBabs z4b-5a NH
5 years ago
I agree 100% with GG48. Sounds like the plant was installed without an understanding of how large and vigorous they are.
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The buds begin to form in July here in the South. In norhtern locales, they form later. If you live in CA, TX, MS, AL, GA, FL for example, you could loose next year's blooms. I lost my blooms one season when a friend cut the blooms for drying purposes. I gave her permission to cut them in April or May but she did not show up until mid July. Total blooms for all plants on the next growing season: 2. The only problems with pruning now would be that it is the middle of the summer so you need to check the plant for lack of moisture issues. Also, consider relocating the plant elsewhere so you do not have to do this chore twice a year.
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Feel free to deadhead the spent blooms at any time of the year. The only time that I would recommend deadheading soon is when the plant suffers from fungal infections and the leaves and blooms may be full of spores. Flopping is hard to avoid when the plant has large, dense, heavy panicles like Limelight, Vanilla Strawberry, Phantom, etc. can produce. Stake the stems now or in late fall/winter, when the shrubs lose their foliage and you can clearly see the internal structure of the shrub. You can also use tomato cages, peony hoops, plant ties for plants, lasso the stems, etc. You can also plant cultivars that have smaller, lacier blooms and-or stronger stems. Planting hydrangeas by themselves can promote flopping if the area is windy while planting in front of walls and between two plants may help mitigate flopping. Cultivars with lacy, smaller blooms may be better if this is a big problem for you: Pinky Winky, Baby Lace, Brussels Lace, Chantilly Lace, etc.; just select one whose dimensions will work for you.
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Jess
Original Author
5 years ago
last modified: 5 years ago
Thanks for your replies! I actually think these are "Little Limes". I bought and planted them myself about 5 years ago, and the tag definitely said they were "compact". They're just not as compact as I imagined. I might have exaggerated the *massive* part - I would guess they're growing to be 5ft tall with decent pruning. I'm going to prune back even more and see what happens.
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NHBabs z4b-5a NH
5 years ago
The linked blog page below includes some nice text and photos of Hydrangea paniculata pruning. I think hers are actually Limelights, but the same ideas on how they regrow applies to any of them.

https://deborahsilver.com/blog/more-on-pruning/
Jess thanked NHBabs z4b-5a NH
guyground
5 years ago
last modified: 5 years ago
give them a very hard prune , take down 2/3 or even more of the plant. They'll grow back hard but perhaps not quite as large as they are now.

As this variety of hydrangea blooms on new wood, you can only prune once, early in the growing season, if you want to get flowers.
Jess thanked guyground

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