Concerned about my Limelight Hydrangea tree

4 years ago

Last summer some of you may have seen photos of my LH tree. It was very full and beautiful. However, since it had not been trimmed in several years, so much growth was on very thin, small branches and were almost cracking under the weight of a heavy rain or snow. It had also been damaged by the falling of a large limb from another tree. I decided to trim it back quite aggressively. Now, even though I see budding on my Japanese Maples, Burning Bush and Lilacs, I see none on the LH. I don’t even see green wood around the openings of the branches. Have I killed it?

Featured Answer

pennlake

4 years ago

When it comes to the Hydrangea paniculata, don't over complicate things by worrying about pruning. With all the breeding work that has been done in the last decade or two pick the variety that fits the space and assume everything will get a little bigger than the tag says. These are really no brainer plants. These are my observations with many varieties in my location (MN).

If the spent flowers bother you, prune them off late fall through early spring. Get out the shears and do it. No need to fuss with hand pruners and each individual flower. Otherwise the plant will grow over them. Also, it seems like the the more lace cap type flowers tend to break off over the winter.
Pruning them back will not significantly reduce their size in a given season once established. I've seen hard pruned plants grow taller than the unpruned specimen of the same variety. Right plant, right place.
Hard pruning seems to create a later and more uneven bloom cycle on the plant. I prefer the plant blooming consistently around the whole plant so don't prune or just lightly.
I haven't seen a consistent result of pruning and flop prevention. I think age structure are more important. Certain varieties with big, full flowers are more prone to flop with the right weather event.

And with some of the new breeding in Hydrangea arborescens those of us in cold zones that don't want to deal with Hydrangea macrophylla even variation in sizes, colors, shapes and timing. Just no blues.

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Comments (16)

djacob Z6a SE WI
Original Author
4 years ago
Here’s another photo
ken_adrian Adrian MI cold Z5
4 years ago
regardless of the other children.. mid march is still early in z5 to worry about something not being as early as the other things ... be patient ...

besides.. maybe the rest of them will get first/freeze damaged.. just to show this one why budding out early isnt always the best thing ...

just leave it alone and give it time,...

and if it does flush out.. maybe we can get rid of some of those not so good pruning stubs that were left in the process ...

ken

btw: when did you prune it back?? .. late in the year???
djacob Z6a SE WI thanked ken_adrian Adrian MI cold Z5
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Kind of a late post for this thread, but... I have what I thought was a PeeGee which looks a lot like an Oakleaf. It has panicules up to 10 or 12 inches long. They droop very little, maybe because I prune each Spring about a third of the height of the shrub. It is nowlate fall and the shrub?tree is about 12 feet tall. When I prune in the Spring I take out all the smaller branchs and leave the larger ones. The shrub after pruning is about six feet tall.It blooms nicely all summer. My Oakleaf, has, of course, the oak leaves, but the flowers are very much like the PeeGee flowers. Has anyone else found that to be true? It is also leggier and has a bit of a scraggly growth habit to it. But it will tolerate lots of shade. Someone mentioned that )PeeGee is the tree form of Limelight. Is this true? I have two smaller limelights (O think) which have moptop flowers that are huge, but the shrub itself is smaller. Any info on these three varieties and their comparative feaures would be appreciated. Thanks.
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Thank you for your thoughts - very well taken too, honestly! :-) I originally thought to do an all LL at first, then I wanted to find AB so badly as a neighbor for LL, but got caught in the color lures of QF & her earlier bloom time (just a mo. after Peonies!). So I thought perhaps, to alternate LL & QF ... even AB as the 3rd then prune them to similar size ... not convinced, I stopped! I finally found AB, as you might have read - posted in May ... decided to plant her elsewhere to take advantage of her potential stature. So now back to square 1! I have several foundation beds & patches/islands with textures, colors & staggered bloom time . I liken my piece of soil (my 2nd-childhood/playground, really! LOL) to a grandma's quilt ... not an award-winning quilt, but a comfy, soft - even perhaps, sloppily-stitched-together utility quilt, full of warm memories!!! The part/shade, other half (separated by steps) of the retaining wall top came out wonderfully with different plants (3 are Hs) punctuated by my grotto at the N end! The wall that collapsed after our '100-yr-flood of '93' was rebuilt - now Baltic Ivy covers it well. I'm hoping that the sunny half, will also be completely covered by H petiolaris in a few years. I'm not rushing with this hedge-like row of paniculatas, but will dig up 2-3 Peonies & prep a hole. Would love to read others' thoughts & ideas too! MTIA!!! <:->
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Everyone seems to have a different POV on trimming your trees. 6 Years before a hard cut . The answer might be slighting different based on branching, but I think once the primary stems are around 3/4-1 inch thick or so and of decent length , I start cutting back hard. Don't think it would be 6 years though. I let the subsequent stems from that grow out, get a bit thicker and to the length I want, and then continue to cut back hard once thick enough . The second round of stem framework may be around the 6 year mark, but not the 1st IME, the thicker the stem, the new wood that comes out and blooms is strong enough to not be a flopper. With all this WFH time, I've been kneeling/crawling on my back to see how the new wood comes out of (old wood) stems to get some understanding on how energy flows......I've yet to form a consensus though.
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luis_pr
4 years ago
last modified: 4 years ago
It is too early for some places up in the northern states. My hydrangea macrophyllas began to leaf out in late February/early March but the paniculatas wake up about a week or two later. Generally speaking (for non-tree paniculatas), if you see no leaf out by the end of May, you can assume that the stem is dead and you can prune it all the way down. The roots may not be dead so you may get new growth (stems). In the case of a tree that does not leaf out by the end of May, that means that it did not make it. But if the tree's roots were ok, you would have several new growth (stems) from the bottom soon (you would have to "start the tree" from scratch though).

Just a fyi (not implying that this happened): It is never a good thing to prune before the plant has gone dormant in autumn/winter because pruning makes plants go into "grow" mode and if winter hits when it is "awake", they may have winter injuries. It is best to prune a few weeks after the plant has gone dormant.

Then there are my Crape Myrtles. They look like lilacs but the CMs leaf out reeeeeally late, like May sometimes. Looks weird having no foliage when other plants are blooming!
djacob Z6a SE WI thanked luis_pr
djacob Z6a SE WI
Original Author
4 years ago
last modified: 4 years ago
I pruned the tree on October 14, 2019. I had read it was ok to prune in fall or spring. Ken maybe you could tell me more about the not so good pruning stubs???? Do you mean prune back to the largest branches?
ken_adrian Adrian MI cold Z5
4 years ago
see here now.. lol... https://duckduckgo.com/?t=ffcm&q=pruning+stubs&iax=images&ia=images\second

third pic at link .. when the stub is too long.. the tree cant encapsulate and close the wound ... so the stub starts rotting.. and it can go down into the trunk of the tree .. in tree time.. 10 or 20 years ...

on the other hand.. who knows.. in this small flowering tree.. it might bud out on some of those ... its not that a a big deal on small stuff like this .... but its not good if its some 50 foot tree hanging over your house ...

just a little teaching moment..

glad to see/hear.. you made it thru winter ...

ken
djacob Z6a SE WI thanked ken_adrian Adrian MI cold Z5
luis_pr
4 years ago
Ken, did you put the correct link? When I clicked to see what was being said, I ended in a page that appeared to have search results and no pictures. ???
djacob Z6a SE WI thanked luis_pr
amanda99999
4 years ago
last modified: 4 years ago
I'm zone 6 and non of my panicle hydrangeas have any leaf buds or other signs of life. Totally normal for this time of year for me.
djacob Z6a SE WI thanked amanda99999
djacob Z6a SE WI
Original Author
4 years ago
I did find the correct page Ken, thanks. Now go to Hosta NOIDS and help me out! Hahaha :-)
NHBabs z4b-5a NH
4 years ago
Way too early for panicled hydrangeas in zone 5. I have 6” snow predicted for Monday. This is an early spring, and you just need to have patience. The plants generally have a pretty good grasp on when it’s a good time to start swelling buds, and it isn’t the same for all plants.
djacob Z6a SE WI thanked NHBabs z4b-5a NH
whaas_5a
4 years ago
What the hell I still have frozen soil n the yard. No budding of any kind Of any plant.

When pruning back cut at roughly 45 degree angle to the nearest bud.

Personally I’d cut off the little stubs.

couple other things...

when you have all that thin grow it’s advised to thin it back to the main stems. Cutting back as shown generates more full thin growth. Goal is to get caliper.

Invest is a better pruner.

This my favorite compared to the idiotic but popular felco that has the spring and little lock switch at the pivot point.

https://www.amazon.com/Okatsune-Bypass-Pruners-General-Purpose/dp/B001Y54F88/ref=mp_s_a_1_3?dchild=1&keywords=okatsune+pruners&qid=1584905570&sprefix=okat&sr=8-3
djacob Z6a SE WI thanked whaas_5a
L Clark (zone 4 WY)
4 years ago
ha ha yeah. No swelling buds on any plant except cotoneaster. Just barely got my first emerging tulip on the warm south side of my house
djacob Z6a SE WI thanked L Clark (zone 4 WY)
Embothrium
4 years ago
Have a look at some of this stuff:

https://www.bing.com/search?q=pruning+hydrangea+paniculata+plants&form=EDGEAR&qs=AS&cvid=c5533251d91047dfa662da91e60eb6b1&cc=US&setlang=en-US&elv=AQj93OAhDTiHzTv1paQdngzhg9Ad7TsIXW%21d4wqABrtcQN0b3RqaxSLHF6mbnDTF92xC1GFAnhRNBtoAeGEi7cizoXetHQQOZ%21lXWbIY4Q&plvar=0
djacob Z6a SE WI thanked Embothrium
hyed
4 years ago
I have pruned 10’ Limelights in April down to bone (2’) Sept they are 10’ ... now just prune the old blooms and shape them up
djacob Z6a SE WI thanked hyed
djacob Z6a SE WI
Original Author
4 years ago
Thank you everyone....Embothrium, I have used a long handled lopper to trim the tree because I don’t have great hand strengh. Are the hand pruners you recommend on Amazon easy to use? Or is there a lopper you would recommend? Is there a reason to use a pruner and not a lopper?
ken_adrian Adrian MI cold Z5
4 years ago
the only difference is size ... and how close you can make the surgical cut ... yours werent very surgical.. eh??

dont worry about all that .. until it buds out ... if it does NOT ... then the cuts are really important ...

once we figure out where the buds are ... we can recommend some further cuts ... maybe loping off certain parts.. to get rid of a bunch of bad parts all in one fell swoop ...

ken
djacob Z6a SE WI thanked ken_adrian Adrian MI cold Z5

Concerned about my Limelight Hydrangea tree

pennlake

Comments (16)

djacob Z6a SE WI
Original Author

ken_adrian Adrian MI cold Z5

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whaas_5a

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Embothrium

hyed

djacob Z6a SE WI
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ken_adrian Adrian MI cold Z5

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Concerned about my Limelight Hydrangea tree

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