pruning peonies and hydrangeas?

[Anonymous]

We moved into a new home about a year ago and there are peonies and hydrangeas. I've never had a yard before so I didn't know I was supposed to prune them last fall.

Should I do it now? Or just let them be this year? If I prune them, how far back?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We moved into a new home about a year ago and there are peonies and hydrangeas. I've never had a yard before so I didn't know I was supposed to prune them last fall.

Should I do it now? Or just let them be this year? If I prune them, how far back?

It depends what kind of hydrangeas you have. Do you know? If not, take a pic and look it up either via the iPhone feature that does it or google image search. Some hydrangeas bloom on old wood so you don't want to do that now because you likely will prune potential flowers. Honestly you need to googleo your specific kind. Hamiltonhouse on instagram is a good place to learn about hydrangeas. She is a big time gardener.

[Anonymous]

Do you mean removing the dead stalks from the peonies? If you’re doing that then be very careful to not cut the new pink shoots that will soon start emerging from the ground. If you do that all the blooms for this year will be gone.

[Anonymous]

PPs are correct.

Peonies: They are herbaceous perennials, which means the above ground growth dies to the ground, while the plant system underground prepares new growth for the Spring. All of the dead plant you see above ground can be cut to the ground at any time; you can even leave a little of the stalk if you are concerned about cutting new growth. The new plant will begin to emerge soon, so as PP siad, be careful not to cut into anything that looks fresh. Even if you don't cut out the old stuff, the new shoots will emerge on schedule, your plant just may look a bit ragged with the mix of dead and new.

Hydrangea: There are nearly 80 species of hydrangea in the world. Thankfully, most gardens focus on just a few main types for landscaping: Bigleaf, Panicle, Smooth, Oakleaf, Mountain, and Climbing hydrangeas. Each of these requires a different kind of care and mainenance, depending on whether the plant blooms on this year's growth (new wood) or last year's growth (old wood). So as PP said, look at photos of yours from last year and google each of these types to figure out what you have. Then search for how to prune that specific variety. They are very forgiving, so if you mess up this year, it will jsut mean they don't look great this season, but it will eventually recover for future seasons. It is best to err on the side of not pruning until you know what you have.

https://homesteadgardens.com/hydrangea-pruning-by-variety/

[Anonymous]

Thanks everyone, this was super helpful. Great to know I haven’t messed them up for forever lol.

[Anonymous]

Help! It’s 3/31. Too late to prune the hydrangeas? These are the regular blue/pink fluffballs that most people have.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Help! It’s 3/31. Too late to prune the hydrangeas? These are the regular blue/pink fluffballs that most people have.

Bigleaf Hydrangea (Hydrangea macrophylla). Blooms are large, round clusters (mophead) or flat-topped with outer petals surrounding a central cluster (lacecap) in colors of from pink to blue to purple depending on soil acidity, wiht large, oval-shaped green leaves. These bloom on old wood, so pruning at the wrong time can affect flowering.

Here is the U. MD Extension’s advice on pruning hydrangea. https://extension.umd.edu/resource/pruning-hydrangeas/

Summary:
You can thin your bigleaf mophead shrub now, which is removing select, entire branches to get more air flow into the plant and avoid black spot, etc. since you remove the whole branch anyway, bloom time doesn’t matter.

Heading back: as your hydrangea breaks dormancy, you can see where branches of parts of branches have died. You can cut any branch back to the top-most set of live buds without harming flowering. Often winter will cause dead tips, so pruning those out can happen any time, as a dead tip won't bloom anyway.

Deadheading. While not necessary, you can remove dried up flowers at the tips of branches (not further down the branch) any time after flowers fade for any hydrangea type.

What you don’t want to do right now is renewal pruning where you remove or cut back most of the old wood — that will cut off this year’s blooms. Unless, of course, you need to do a full renewal pruning because the shrub is struggling or has taken on an awkward shape.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Help! It’s 3/31. Too late to prune the hydrangeas? These are the regular blue/pink fluffballs that most people have.

It probably is too late if you want flowers this year. Pruning could remove flowers (if they are the kind that bloom on old wood), but not pruning won’t hurt the plant regardless of what sort it is. So use this spring to figure out what sort you have (blooms on old or new wood) and then you’ll know for next year.

[Anonymous]

Just pull the dead flowers off the hydrangeas and prune them next year. the peonies are surely already growing new stems, so you can cut off all the dead stuff.