REPORTING WINTER'S IMPACT ON HYDRANGEAS: PART ONE
Time to report on winter's
impact on my hydrangeas. In early May, I went out to my Zone 5 garden to see
what winter had done to my hydrangeas that bloom on old wood: macrophyllas (big
leaf) and hydrangea serratas (mountain). I also checked on the quercifolias
(oak leaf) and petiolaris (climbing).
I held my breath, fearing
the worst since we had a brutal 2 week spell of cold temperatures to close out 2017
and begin 2018 in southwest CT
I was relieved to find
that all my oak leaf and climbing hydrangeas had buds on them.
But then I had to muster
the courage to inspect the troublemaker: hydrangea macrophylla. I have a
variety of rebloomers (see list below). I also have some old wood macrophyllas
like Lady In Red. Intentionally and unintentionally, my macrophyllas are
scattered throughout various parts of my property with different levels of
exposure to the elements. Here's what I found.
Consistent with prior
years, the buds on one Lady In Red which blooms only on old wood were alive and
well. This plant was protected from the prevailing weather by
a neighbor's house. The second Lady In Red was not so lucky: some tips and
stems were clearly dead and showed no signs of life while other tips had live buds
on them. Sadly, the first plant that came through winter with no scratches was
later to suffer damage from a rare, freak tornado that tore into the plant. She
is now badly damaged but still alive. The plan is to give her a severe cut back
and reshaping after flowering to restore her.
Then I traversed the yard.
Of my Endless Summer® , The Original collection, some had complete
dieback, as shown in this photo (it is now regenerating from the base).
 |
| Reblooming hydrangea regenerating from roots after complete winterkill of top growth. |
Some had partial tip
dieback, some had partial stem dieback or full stem death. Below is a photo of one
that had a little of everything. The fence helped a little. The same happened
to most of the other rebloomers I have.
 |
| Reblooming hydrangea showing partial winterkill of all or some stems. |
BloomStruck® came through the best of all my Endless Summers® and
the best of my entire collection of rebloomers. It is loaded with flowers at
the tip of the stem on its prodigious new growth. The photo below shows what the plant looked
like on May 4 after a very cool and gray
April. The flowers are just starting (late June in CT) to color up.
 |
| Endless Summer BloomStruck® displaying full buds in early May with no winter dieback. |
This picture below shows a
tip that you might have thought was dead in April or even mid-May and you might
have cut it off. But by early June, it actually produced a flower bud. The Lesson: Be patient when it comes to
cleaning up your plants in spring and wait to see "broccoli" before
you cut those stems.
 |
| Bud emerging in June from what might have been thought to be a dead tip in April. |
Since I can't control the
weather, when I analyze which of my plants did what, I draw two major conclusions:
First, the plants that did the best were those that
enjoyed winter protection from one or more of several sitings: dry winter
persistent foliage which might have been needled conifers like Alberta
My second conclusion is that reblooming hydrangea
macrophyllas are the only way to go. Where the tips of my plants died back, it is their reblooming
capability that are producing the flowers along the stems. The magic of
rebloomers is the answer for cold climate gardeners and can only enhance performance
for gardeners everywhere else.
Nantucket Blue™
I'll be back in a few days
with PART TWO of my report. That one will detail how my hydrangea serratas, the
mountain hydrangeas, made it through the winter.
*Other rebloomers I assessed:
Endless Summer® Blushing Bride, Twist-n-Shout®
'David
Ramsey'
Double
Delights™ Wedding Gown, Perfection, and Star Gazer
Everlasting™ Revolution
Forever & Ever® Peppermint
Let's
Dance® Blue Jangles®
Midnight Duchess®
Mini
Penny™
'Penny Mac'
Pink
Shira™
Queen Of Pearls®
