Overwintering Annabelle Hydrangea: Compost or Fertilizer?

[Anonymous]

Grateful for some advice. If you have used fertilizer, which one would you recommend?

when do you apply it ? Is late October too early or too late?

Thank you

[Anonymous]

No fertilizer now. The plant is going to rest and doesn’t want or need to be stimulated to grow. Just make sure it’s well mulched and feed in doting.

[Anonymous]

Compost anytime. Fertilizer when you want them to grow.

[Anonymous]

PP is right. No fertilizer now. That would be like eating a bowl of ice cream right before bed. You can mulch if you like (with compost, shredded bark, etc) but you don’t have to, either. Plant will be fine either way.

[Anonymous]

A bag of leaf gro is always welcome under shredded wood mulch.

[Anonymous]

Thank you all.

Makes sense what you say about fertilizer at this time. Leaf gro it is

[Anonymous]

They are a cultivar of the native H. arborescens, so they don't need anything, just partial sun and enough moisture. They get fried with hot afternoon sun, so the placement is important. I have 5, both white and pink, and mine bloom non-stop with nothing other than the occasional mulch.

[Anonymous]

Hydrangeas aren’t native and can be invasive. Please consider planting something that actually belongs here. Bay Berry is a good alternative.

[Anonymous]

Hydrangeas are non-native but are not invasive. Stop spreading misinformation.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Hydrangeas aren’t native and can be invasive. Please consider planting something that actually belongs here. Bay Berry is a good alternative.

Yes, some varieties of Hydrangea spread like crazy -- the native ones. So they are not considered invasive.

Hydrangea arborescens, the Annabelle variety, are native to the U.S. and spread through rhizomes, sending up new plants away form the original. These can get out of control in your yard if not regularly managed. So they can invade, but are not "invasive species."

Hydrangea quercifolia, the oak leaf variety, are native to the U.S., spread by suckering shoots from the original plant so can get quite large, but is still the mother plant.

Hydrangea paniculata, not native to US, is more woody, usually pruned to a tree form and does not spread.

Hydrangea macrophylla, the kind that turns from pink to blue with soil change, is not native, and does not spread.

Hydrangea petiolaris, climbing hydrnagea is a vine that is not native and can reach 80 feet, and after about 4 years it can get really out of control if not carefully pruned.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Hydrangeas aren’t native and can be invasive. Please consider planting something that actually belongs here. Bay Berry is a good alternative.

Some hydrangeas are native, including hydrangea arborescens. Annabelle hydrangea is just a cultivar that someone found on a hike 100 years ago. It's not as attractive for pollinators as most straight species hydrangea arborescens, because the big flower blooms are not as attractive to them as the smaller fertile florets, of which there are few because all the stems have flowers.

Non-native hydrangeas are not invasive for basically the same reason. The varieties that are sold commercially have big flower caps that crowd out the fertile parts, so they just can't spread by seed very effectively.

I like native plants, I support using native plants where it makes sense. Someone who is optimizing for pollinator activity might want to choose something other than Annabelle. But you just look like a zealot when you transparently don't know what you're talking about.