Growing Hydrangeas

How to Plant, Grow, and Prune Hydrangeas

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With immense flower heads, hydrangeas flaunt an old-fashioned charm in summertime that’s hard to resist. While these flowering shrubs are low-maintenance, proper care will keep them blooming. Our Hydrangea Guide provides summer plant care tips for all you need to know about growing hydrangeas—from watering to fertilizing to pruning to winter care.

About Hydrangeas

Unrivaled in the shrub world for beautiful flowers, these elegant plants are easy to cultivate, tolerate almost any soil, and produce abundant blooms. Colors beguile with clear blue, vibrant pink, frosty white, lavender, and rose blossoms—sometimes all blooming on the same plant!

Hydrangeas are excellent for a range of garden sites from group plantings to shrub borders to containers. Varieties abound (every year, it seems, breeders present us with more options!), and gardeners’ expectations of bloom size and color are boundless. To know how your hydrangea will grow, pay attention to the types, defined below. When you know what to expect, delights will be magnified.

Enjoy this ode to the beautiful of hydrangeas and learn how to grow hydrangeas in our guide below.

Planting

When to Plant Hydrangeas

Plant in spring after the last spring frost or in fall before the first fall frost. See local frost dates.
Plant before the heat of summer arrives.

Where to Plant Hydrangeas

Most hydrangeas will thrive in fertile, well-draining soils that receive plenty of moisture. Add compost to enrich poor soil.
Generally, hydrangeas prefer partial sun. Ideally, they will be given full sun in the morning, with some afternoon shade to protect from the hot midday sun. This is especially true for the Bigleaf hydrangea (H. macrophylla), which is prone to wilting. Some varieties are more tolerant of full sun.
Space hydrangeas anywhere from 3 to 10 feet apart, depending on type.

How to Plant Hydrangeas

Dig a hole as deep as the root ball and 2 to 3 times as wide.
Set the plant in the hole and fill it half full with soil. Water. After water is absorbed, fill the rest of the hole with soil.
Water thoroughly again.

Pink hydrangea flowers

How to Grow Hydrangeas from Cuttings

Hydrangeas can easily be grown from cuttings. They root readily and the process makes for a great lesson in propagation. Here’s how to do it:

On a well-established hydrangea, find a branch that is new growth and that has not flowered. New growth will appear lighter in color than old growth, and the stem will not be as rigid.
From the tip of the branch, move 4 to 5 inches down and make a horizontal cut. Make sure that there are at least 3 to 4 pairs of leaves on your cutting.
Remove the lowest pair of leaves from the cutting, trimming them flush to the stem. Roots grow more easily from these leaf nodes, so if you can afford to remove more than one pair of leaves, do so. Be sure to keep at least 2 pairs of leaves at the tip end of the cutting, though.
If the remaining leaves are quite large, cut them in half, removing the tip-half. This prevents the leaves from hitting the sides of the plastic bag you will place over the cutting later on (to keep the humidity up).
(Optional) Dust the leafless part of the stem with rooting hormone and an anti-fungal powder for plants (both available at a local hardware or garden store). This will encourage rooting and discourage rotting.
Prepare a small pot and fill it with moistened potting mix. Plant the cutting in the soil, sinking it down to the first pair of remaining leaves. Water lightly to get rid of any air gaps around the stem.
Cover the entire pot loosely with a plastic bag. Make sure the bag isn’t touching the leaves of the cutting, otherwise the leaves can rot. (Chopsticks or something similar can be used to prop up the bag and keep it off the leaves.)
Place the pot in a warm area that’s sheltered from direct sunlight and wind.
Check on your cutting every few days to make sure that it isn’t rotting and only water again once the top layer of soil is dry. With luck, the cutting should root in a few weeks! (Check by gently pulling on the cutting; if you feel resistance, roots have formed.)

Care

Hydrangea Care

Watering

For the first year or two after planting and during any drought, be sure hydrangeas get plenty of water.
Water at a rate of 1 inch per week throughout the growing season. It’s better to deeply water 3 times a week than sprinkle water in a shallow manner. This encourages root growth.
Bigleaf and smooth hydrangeas require more water, but all varieties benefit from consistent moisture.
Leaves will wilt if the soil is too dry, and flowering will be hampered by a lack of water.
Use a soaker hose to water deeply and keep moisture off the flowers and leaves.
It’s best to water in the morning to prepare hydrangeas for the the heat of the day and to avoid disease.
Add organic mulch underneath your hydrangeas to help keep the soil moist and cool, add nutrients over time, and improve soil texture.

Fertilizing

If your soil is rich, you may not need to fertilize hydrangeas. Too much fertilizer encourages leafy growth at the expense of blooms. The best way to determine your fertility needs is by using a soil test.

Apply fertilizer based on your specific hydrangeas. Each variety has different needs and will benefit from different application timing.

Bigleaf hydrangeas can benefit from several light fertilizer applications in March, May and June.
Oakleaf and panicle hydrangeas do best with two applications in April and June.
Smooth hydrangea plants only need fertilization once, in late winter.

Winter protection

In the fall, cover plants to a depth of at least 18 inches with bark mulch, leaves, pine needles, or straw in the fall. If at all possible, cover the entire plant, tip included, by making cages out of snow fencing or chicken wire, and loosely filling the cages with leaves. (Do not use maple leaves, as they tend to mat when wet and can suffocate the plant.)

How to Change the Color of Hydrangea Flowers

It is possible to change the flowers’ colors, but not instantly. Color correction takes weeks—even months. Wait until the plant is at least 2 years old to give it time to recover from the shock of its original planting. Also note that it’s easier to change blue flowers to pink than pink to blue.

It’s not every hydrangea that changes color. The color of some Bigleaf hydrangeas (H. macrophylla)—especially Mophead and Lacecap types—and H. serrata cultivars change color based on the soil pH.

Acidic soils with a pH of less than 5.5 produce blue flowers; soils with a pH greater than 5.5 produce pink flowers. White flowers are not affected by pH.

See How to Change the Color of Hydrangea Flowers for more information.

Hydrangea colors

How to Prune a Hydrangea

Many of our readers’ questions involve pruning hydrangeas. And no wonder—it’s confusing, and all depends on the variety of hydrangea. Luckily, as long as you know which type you’ve got, it’s easy to figure out what sort of pruning technique to employ.

Learn the essentials below, then read more about how to prune hydrangea varieties here.

Hydrangea Type	When to Prune	Where Flowers Appear
Bigleaf (H. macrophylla)	Summer, after flowering	On old growth
Oakleaf (H. quercifolia)	Summer, after flowering	On old growth
Panicle (H. paniculata)	Late winter, before spring growth	On new growth
Smooth (H. arborescens)	Late winter, before spring growth	On new growth
Mountain (H. serrata)	Summer, after flowering	On old growth
Climbing (H. anomala subsp. petiolaris)	Summer, after flowering	On old growth

Pruning Common Hydrangeas

The most common garden hydrangea shrub is the Bigleaf variety, Hydrangea macrophylla. (See more below.)

Bigleaf (H. macrophylla), Oakleaf (H. quercifolia), Mountain (H. serrata), and Climbing hydrangeas (H. anomala subsp. petiolaris) are pruned AFTER the flowers fade in the summer. These varieties bloom on the previous season’s stems (“old wood”).

Flower buds actually form in the late summer and flower afterwards the following season, so avoid pruning after August 1.
Only cut away dead wood in the fall or very early spring.
To prune, cut one or two of the oldest stems down to the base to encourage branching and fullness.
If the plant is old, neglected, or damaged, prune all the stems down to the base. You’ll lose the flowers for the upcoming season, but also rejuvenate the plant for future years.
It’s best not to deadhead (remove faded blooms) on the big Mopheads; leave them over the winter and cut them back in early spring (to the first healthy pair of buds). It’s fine to deadhead the Lacecaps; cut down to the second pair of leaves below the flower head.
When growing H. macrophylla (and H. serrata) varieties in Zones 4 and 5, do not prune unless absolutely necessary, and then do so immediately after blooming. Otherwise, remove only dead stem in the spring.

Other Hydrangeas

Panicle (H. paniculata) and Smooth (H. arborescens) hydrangeas are pruned BEFORE flower buds are formed. These varieties bloom on the current season’s stems (“new wood”).

Prune in the late winter when the plant is dormant. This means that if the buds are killed during the winter, the plant will produce new buds in the spring which will produce blooms.
In general, prune only dead branches, and do not prune to “shape” the bush.

Read more about how to prune hydrangea types.

Pests/Diseases

Protect against pests and disease by choosing resistant cultivars.

Powdery mildew, leaf spot, wilt, and bight can all appear on hydrangeas.
Pests are rare, but can appear when plants become stressed. Common pests include aphids and red spider mites.

Properly caring for hydrangeas is your best defense. (See above tips on watering and hydrangea care.)

Harvest/Storage

How to Cut and Store Dried Hydrangea Flowers

Use dried hydrangea flowers to create a wreath or other decorations around the house:

Cut the flower heads when the flowers have matured and developed a papery consistency.
Remove leaves from stems, and hang upside down in a warm, dry, dark, airy room.
When completely dry (usually a couple of weeks), store in a dry location out of direct sunlight.
To enhance flower color, spritz dry flowers with diluted fabric dye.

Bigleaf Hydrangea (mophead)

How to Use Hydrangeas in a Bouquet

Place the freshly cut hydrangea stems immediately into cold water to avoid wilting.
Recut the woody stems at a slant under water. Remove lower leaves on the stems.
Arrange the stems in a vase and place in a cool spot.
Check the water in the vase daily and mist the blooms with water.
Soak wilting blooms in cool water for 10 to 15 minutes to revive them.

Recommended Varieties

For a more detailed overview of the many types of hydrangeas, check out Hydrangea Varieties for Every Garden.

There are two main groups of hydrangeas:

Group 1: Plants that Bloom on New Growth (This Year’s Stems)

The following hydrangeas, which form their buds in early summer on new growth, will flower reliably each year, requiring no special care.

Panicle hydrangeas (Hydrangea paniculata)
- ‘Grandiflora’ is a big, old-fashioned, floppy variety, ‘Tardiva’, ‘White Moth’, and ‘Pee Wee’ fit the scale of small gardens. ‘Limelight’ produces cool-green flowers and grows to a height of 6 to 8 feet.
Smooth hydrangeas (H. arborescens)
- Look for the cultivars H. arborescens ‘Grandiflora’ and ‘Annabelle’, which produce many large (up to 14 inches across), tight, symmetrical blooms in late summer.

Bigleaf hydrangea lacecap
Image: Lacecap hydrangea

Group 2: Plants that Bloom on Old Growth (Last Year’s Stems)

If you live in Zone 8 or warmer, choose plants from this group. Gardeners in cool climate zones will find many of them a challenge, because they set flower buds in the fall. Although hardy to Zones 4 and 5, the buds are prone to damage by an early frost in fall, a late frost in spring, or excessively cold temperatures when dormant in winter. This, along with untimely pruning, can result in inconsistent flowering or no flowering at all.

Oakleaf hydrangeas (H. quercifolia)
- You can expect exceptional fall color from ‘Snow Queen’, ‘Snow Flake’, and ‘Alice’.
Bigleaf hydrangeas (H. macrophylla)
- We love ‘All Summer Beauty’ (Mophead), which has profuse, dark blue flowers—turning more pink in soils with near neutral pH. If its buds are winter-killed, the plant will form new ones in spring and still bloom.
- ‘Nikko Blue’ (Mophead) is vigorous, with large, rounded, blue flowers.
- ‘Blue Wave’ (Lacecap) produces rich blue to mauve or lilac-blue to pink flowers.
- ‘Color Fantasy’ (Mophead) has reddish or deep purple flowers and shiny, dark green leaves. It grows to about 3 feet tall.
Mountain hydrangeas (H. serrata)
- Examples are ‘Bluebird’ and ‘Diadem’. In acidic soil, ‘Preziosa’ produces blossoms of an extraordinary blend of pale shades of blue, mauve, violet, and green.
Climbing hydrangeas (H. anomala ssp. Petiolaris)
- ‘Firefly’ is a newly-patented variety exhibiting variegated foliage.

For more about hydrangea varieties, see Hydrangea Varieties for Every Garden.

Wit & Wisdom

The word “hydrangea” is derived from Greek hydor meaning “water” and angeion meaning “vessel,” referring to the plant’s seed pods, which look like small water jugs.
In the language of flowers, hydrangeas symbolize gratitude for being understood, or frigidity and heartlessness. See more flower meanings.

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Reader Comments

The best time to transplant

The best time to transplant is in the fall after the leaves have fallen off.

I am thinking of adding a

I am thinking of adding a hydrangea to my back garden which gets both sun and shade. However, I also have a family of deer who like to stop by on their way across the neighborhood. I am wondering if they like hydrangea and if my attempt to plant them is a lost cause. Thanks.

Hydrangeas are often

Hydrangeas are often preferred by deer. If you have deer in your neighborhood they should be planted with additional protection such as fencing or repellents.

my hydrangea is about four

my hydrangea is about four years old and bloomed early this year,the flowers have turned brown,i'm wondering if they should be pruned and how i can stop this from happening

June 2013 was so interesting

June 2013 was so interesting for my 3 yr old macro, the normally all peri blues came up w/ lavender and pale green centers, and now July 2-4 all pale pinks! I had about 10 smaller pale blues hiding in the leaves. Farmer, was it the odd weather this spring, cooler longer than normal and no rain in April? My neighbors older hydrangea, same specie, did the same thing! We both said last year they were bluer, and we didn't touch the soil. Mine looks so healthy, gets morn sun, pm shade, and I want to plant more since this one is happy. I did read coffee grounds worked on encouraging blues, is that true Sir? I had them mulched early this spring. I am in PA. I find the irridescence of the pale colors absolutely mesmorizing. :)

I have a hydrangea (mophead)

I have a hydrangea (mophead) that receives sun till 3-4pm (San Jose, CA) -- blooming well (about 7 or so) -- but has brown/curled up leaves; receives plenty of water (daily and sometimes twice during hot days). Right now the shrub is about 2x2 feet.

Not sure if I should move it or let it stay. Don't have another location except one that gets dappled sun only with 1 hr of afternoon sun.

I would suggest that, if you

I would suggest that, if you don't have a location where it could only get direct sun in the morning, then shade in the afternoon, the spot with dappled shade might be better for your hydrangea. Good luck!

I grow mine in shade (no

I grow mine in shade (no direct sunlight) in San Jose and they are happy as lark. Nick

Our hydrangeas have old tall

Our hydrangeas have old tall woody stems with no leaves among the healthy plants. Is it ok to prune the old woody stems?

Yes, it is fine to remove the

Yes, it is fine to remove the old woody stems.

I have two pots of pink

I have two pots of pink hydrangeas on my front porch. They've been there about 6 weeks and have stayed a gorgeous, brilliant pink in color. After the past few days, the petals are starting to turn a dingy brown. This is my first time to have hydrangeas, what am I doing wrong? I should note that I live in Alaska, and we have lots of sunshine right now. The porch gets plenty of mostly indirect sunlight. Many thanks.

Hydrangea flowers do fade

Hydrangea flowers do fade after a period of bloom. You can deadhead (remove) the spent flowers by cutting close to the bloom. Most woody plants do not rebloom after you remove the old flowers. There are a few varieties that do rebloom, 'Endless Summer' is one.

My hydrangea was severely

My hydrangea was severely stressed during a recent hot spell. The blooms, which were just opening wilted and are now dry; the inner part of the bloom is seems to be recuperating. Will new flowers develop if the damaged flowers are pruned? What should I do?

Most woody plants don't

Most woody plants don't rebloom after you remove the spent flowers. Deadhead by pruning the stem above the first set of large leaves close to the flower.

I have several endless summer

I have several endless summer varieties and love to use them in bouquets. Sometimes the cut flowers last a long time, however, sometimes the flowers wilt immediately. Why?

Yes, hydrangea will often

Yes, hydrangea will often wilt. The solution is to 1) pick in morning once flowers are in full bloom, 2) immediately plunge in cold water, 3) have some boiling water on the stove. Let it cool a bit, and then put the stems in the hot water to sear them and then back to cold water. Some readers sear the stems with a flame.

After replanting our

After replanting our hydrageas last year we did not get flowers.We knew this would happen.My gardener planted other flowers around them...daisies, daylilies, hibiscus, etc. so that we had flowers last summer. This summer our hydrageas are almost hidden by all these flowers. Gardener says this is good for the hydrageas...I think they are being overcrowded. Can hardly see them...Should hydrageas be neslted within other flowers or be completely on their own with no other plants.

Hydrangeas don't like to be

Hydrangeas don't like to be crowded. Plant them in a spot 6 to 8 feet wide where they can spread. Plant them as a backdrop with shorter perennials or annuals in front or plant them at the edge of a garden.

When I want to cut flower for

When I want to cut flower for inside the home how much of the stem can I cut

Cut as much stem as you wish

Cut as much stem as you wish but just make sure you cut early in the morning and only blooms that are fully open. Put in cool water asap.
To avoid wilting, here is a tip that we read about:
--Put cut ends in almost-boiling water for 30 seconds, then plunge into cool water.

MY HYDRANGEA LEAVES ON TWO

MY HYDRANGEA LEAVES ON TWO SMALL BUSHES ARE LIGHT GREEN, ALMOST YELLOW. WHAT IS WRONG WITH THEM?

First, monitor the moisture

First, monitor the moisture level and try to make sure that the plants are not being 'over watered'. The other possible culprit is soil ph levels. Take a sample of your soil near the plant to the local arboretum (county extension office). They may offer soil testing - which will tell you what you need to do to correct the soil ph. Either way, this is going to be a relatively easy fix.
I hope you have plenty of blooms!

I have 2 hydrangas, but do

I have 2 hydrangas, but do not know the variety, but they are "old". They receive morning sun and some shade in the afternoon. They only produce a few flowers each.Planted in beds that support others shrubs without problem. What can be done to help these plants bloom? I have not added any fertilizers.

Add compost to enrich the

Add compost to enrich the soil. Do a little research to find out what type of hydrangea you have and then prune some of the older branches in the fall or spring. See our pruning advice above.

I just planted my hydrangea 3

I just planted my hydrangea 3 days ago. I have watered it every day. The leaves are beginning to wilt and turn brown. What should I do..

Look under the hydrangea

Look under the hydrangea leaves and see if there are tiny spider mites. They suck the juice from the leaves. If you've got mites, spray all leaf surfaces with insecticidal soap. If you're not sure of this diagnosis, bring a sample back to the nursery!

Hi this may sound of the wall

Hi this may sound of the wall but my daughter has a puppy and she was peeing in the flower bed plus I was putting morning coffee grinds on some off the flowers and they are just beautiful this year and I live at the Jersey shore so we do not have the greatest of soil but this is what worked for me both things have different acids !

Can Hydrangeas receive too

Can Hydrangeas receive too much water? Have 3 that have died in a new bed that received heavy run off in Late winter/early spring. Replaced and it is hot July and they are wilting again. What could be wrong?

Hydrangeas need well draining

Hydrangeas need well draining soil and don't like wet feet. Add compost to the soil and put some mulch around the plants to keep the soil moist. Supply some shade if the sun is too hot.

My hydrangea bloomed the

My hydrangea bloomed the first year with huge dark pink flowers. Every year after the blooms get smaller and numerous. It is very healthy. I live in south jersey have sand soil and fertilize with Miracle gro.