Hydrangeas - Ask Extension
Two years ago, my normally healthy and beautiful hydrangeas had a leaf disease. I hand cut each leaf off individually (not cutting the wood stems). La...
Knowledgebase
Hydrangeas #867989
Asked May 11, 2024, 11:41 AM EDT
Two years ago, my normally healthy and beautiful hydrangeas had a leaf disease. I hand cut each leaf off individually (not cutting the wood stems). Last year I had very few leaves grow back and no flowers. This year, many healthy leaves but not one flower bud inside. (See photos).
Montgomery County Maryland
Expert Response
It sounds like the plant might need this year to recuperate, if it had relatively few leaves for the past two growing seasons. When you mention removing leaves two years ago, are we inferring correctly that you removed all the foliage? If so, that's a lot of lost opportunity for photosynthesis, so this might have been what weakened the plant. While removing a few individual leaves that have the worst spotting from leaf spot infections is okay, removing all leaves is a bit drastic and deprives the plant of energy storage for the next year. Leaf spot diseases on hydrangea can be unsightly when it's heavy, but even then, usually enough unaffected leaf tissue remains in those diseased leaves to continue photosynthesizing to help the plant store energy. The foliage does indeed look great right now, so we suggest just letting the plant regain some vigor this year.
Is this a reblooming cultivar? If so, it might flower later this summer on the new growth as it recuperates. Overall, loss of flower buds can also be attributed to winter deer browsing, pruning the branch tips back too early (it doesn't sound like this happened, as long as you didn't cut stems between last summer and now), and a cold snap injuring buds while still unfurled (hydrangea tends to lose cold hardiness too early in years where we have an early warm spell). Much of the state had a drought last year, which if not watered occasionally, might have stressed the plant enough that it was unable to form flower buds or any it did form did not survive the winter.
For now, any stems still bare can be trimmed back. You don't need to take any other action, so just wait and see if it flowers later (if it's a rebloomer) or appears to form flower buds at the end of this year for next spring. No need to fertilize, as there's not indication of a nutrient deficiency. We assume the plant's light exposure hasn't changed (does it get at least a little direct sun?), such as from a nearby tree or shrub getting larger and casting more shade, since too little light will suppress blooming as well.
Miri
Is this a reblooming cultivar? If so, it might flower later this summer on the new growth as it recuperates. Overall, loss of flower buds can also be attributed to winter deer browsing, pruning the branch tips back too early (it doesn't sound like this happened, as long as you didn't cut stems between last summer and now), and a cold snap injuring buds while still unfurled (hydrangea tends to lose cold hardiness too early in years where we have an early warm spell). Much of the state had a drought last year, which if not watered occasionally, might have stressed the plant enough that it was unable to form flower buds or any it did form did not survive the winter.
For now, any stems still bare can be trimmed back. You don't need to take any other action, so just wait and see if it flowers later (if it's a rebloomer) or appears to form flower buds at the end of this year for next spring. No need to fertilize, as there's not indication of a nutrient deficiency. We assume the plant's light exposure hasn't changed (does it get at least a little direct sun?), such as from a nearby tree or shrub getting larger and casting more shade, since too little light will suppress blooming as well.
Miri
