Should my hydrangea be full of leaves by now?

[Anonymous]

The ones that bloom on old growth = no blooms.
The ones that bloom on new grown = blooming or budding out.

[Anonymous]

I am in NW DC and have 3 hydrangeas. None of them got a single bloom this year. One bush is probably 20 or more years old and has been huge and gorgeous every year for a decade. This year it is just a shrub, a quarter of its former size if that with leaves only. The other two are much younger, maybe 7 or 8 years old and bloomed beautifully in past years but this year just leaves and small. Although the white hydrangea in my neighborhood that bloom in August seem to be doing alright, the colored ones really suffered. I think I have seen no more then two bushes in bloom. They are my favorite and it seems so sad. Should we expect it to take more then one season for them to return? Is there anything we can do to protect them this winter if there are more harsh conditions? It never occurred to me that last winter would take such a toll on these particular plants since I know they also do very well in much colder climates in the NE.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I am in NW DC and have 3 hydrangeas. None of them got a single bloom this year. One bush is probably 20 or more years old and has been huge and gorgeous every year for a decade. This year it is just a shrub, a quarter of its former size if that with leaves only. The other two are much younger, maybe 7 or 8 years old and bloomed beautifully in past years but this year just leaves and small. Although the white hydrangea in my neighborhood that bloom in August seem to be doing alright, the colored ones really suffered. I think I have seen no more then two bushes in bloom. They are my favorite and it seems so sad. Should we expect it to take more then one season for them to return? Is there anything we can do to protect them this winter if there are more harsh conditions? It never occurred to me that last winter would take such a toll on these particular plants since I know they also do very well in much colder climates in the NE.

They should be fine next year and unless we have sub-zero temperatures again, you don't need to do anything more than you usually do. The white hydrangeas you see blooming are probably 'oakleaf' hydrangeas. They're more cold tolerant than the typical 'mophead' hydrangeas. My oakleaf hydrangeas didn't suffer any die back from the cold but my old mopheads did. Didn't get a single bloom on them and they were killed back to the ground. I hoping for a glorious display next summer!