Hydrangea pruning - Ask Extension
Can you please tell me the best time to prune both Twist and Shout and snowball hydrangeas. Reading online gives very conflicting information. Thank...
Knowledgebase
Hydrangea pruning #874962
Asked June 27, 2024, 12:44 PM EDT
Can you please tell me the best time to prune both Twist and Shout and snowball hydrangeas. Reading online gives very conflicting information. Thank you!
Carroll County Maryland
Expert Response
Snowball hydrangeas (Hydrangea arborescens) bloom on the current season's new wood. You can prune them in late winter and buds will form on the new stems.
Twist and Shout is a reblooming form of Hydrangea macrophylla. It produces flowers both on new and old (last year's) stems. You can prune this one either in early spring or after the first flush of flowers has faded.
Here is our recently revised guide to Pruning Hydrangeas, which provides further details.
Christa
Twist and Shout is a reblooming form of Hydrangea macrophylla. It produces flowers both on new and old (last year's) stems. You can prune this one either in early spring or after the first flush of flowers has faded.
Here is our recently revised guide to Pruning Hydrangeas, which provides further details.
Christa
You're welcome.
Good afternoon and happy new year!
A couple of quick questions:
Where do you recommend i send our soil for testing for pH and nutrients and do you recommend testing every year?
What do you feel is best, both in terms of affordability and ease, mulch to use on vegetable garden (tomatoes, peppers and cucumbers)?
I am reading that tilling vegetable garden in spring may actually be bad idea...what are your thoughts?
Lastly, when will schedule of home gardening seminars be out for 2025?
Thank you very much...look forward to spring!
Fondly,
Kathleen
Happy new year!
Our Soil Testing and Soil Testing Labs web page provides information about the soil testing process and has a short list of area labs to consider using. Many clients asking for help in interpreting their test results seem to use the University of Delaware lab. Soil testing is typically fine if done every 3 years or so, but testing frequency can depend on what you're trying to achieve (periodic monitoring vs. making more short-term changes that you want to check on the following year, like a pH adjustment). Soil testing goals for vegetable gardening can differ a bit from soil testing goals for a lawn. For example, you'd want to include a test for lead content for the former, and measured phosphorus [P] levels can be more critical in determining legal fertilization options for the latter.
Any biodegradable mulch can work (both for veggies or ornamental plants) that is easiest for you to acquire and use. We don't keep track of pricing, but a low-cost option can be arborist wood chips. (Payments, if charged at all, tend to be for delivery fees only, even for a dump truck load. They will need easy access to an unloading site, though, and you don't always get to choose how many chips get delivered, so prepare for having a lot to deal with or extra to share with other gardeners.) Other materials to mulch with can include biodegradable paper (a thick paper-like version of landscape fabric, sold on rolls), burlap (not treated to be rot-resistant), pine needles, straw (not to be confused with hay), and even autumn leaf litter if you have enough shade trees in the area to contribute. (Leaving the leaves whole, not shredding them, is more ecologically beneficial, but to serve as a mulch, either is fine.)
Tilling soil is generally discouraged, though soil in very poor condition may benefit from the speedier addition of amendments as a trade-off since the soil structure (in that case) is already damaged. Tilling can degrade soil structure, which takes time to build, which is created by soil live like microbes creating both drainage channels and pores in the soil and natural glues that help hold soil particles together to reduce the risk of erosion and compaction. Organic matter content in the soil also helps with resisting compaction, improving drainage, and feeding those beneficial microbes; compost or biodegradable mulch that self-composts in place are the typical avenues of supplementing soil organic matter levels. A soil test can also evaluate organic matter content; the percentage can be surprisingly low to be effective. A few of our web pages about soil basics and health go into more detail about what makes a soil healthy and how to deal with degraded soils.
Home gardening seminars/presentations, workshops, and demonstrations tend to be scheduled by individual county Master Gardener programs, so you can check with your local MGs to ask about timing and topics for this year. (You can contact the county MG coordinator on the linked page if the program's web page doesn't include a schedule.) Some state-wide MG program webinars are open to the public, though some are geared towards a MG audience; the former would likely be publicized on the HGIC social media channels (Facebook and Instagram), mentioned in the HGIC newsletter, and/or shared with residents by local MG programs.
Miri
Our Soil Testing and Soil Testing Labs web page provides information about the soil testing process and has a short list of area labs to consider using. Many clients asking for help in interpreting their test results seem to use the University of Delaware lab. Soil testing is typically fine if done every 3 years or so, but testing frequency can depend on what you're trying to achieve (periodic monitoring vs. making more short-term changes that you want to check on the following year, like a pH adjustment). Soil testing goals for vegetable gardening can differ a bit from soil testing goals for a lawn. For example, you'd want to include a test for lead content for the former, and measured phosphorus [P] levels can be more critical in determining legal fertilization options for the latter.
Any biodegradable mulch can work (both for veggies or ornamental plants) that is easiest for you to acquire and use. We don't keep track of pricing, but a low-cost option can be arborist wood chips. (Payments, if charged at all, tend to be for delivery fees only, even for a dump truck load. They will need easy access to an unloading site, though, and you don't always get to choose how many chips get delivered, so prepare for having a lot to deal with or extra to share with other gardeners.) Other materials to mulch with can include biodegradable paper (a thick paper-like version of landscape fabric, sold on rolls), burlap (not treated to be rot-resistant), pine needles, straw (not to be confused with hay), and even autumn leaf litter if you have enough shade trees in the area to contribute. (Leaving the leaves whole, not shredding them, is more ecologically beneficial, but to serve as a mulch, either is fine.)
Tilling soil is generally discouraged, though soil in very poor condition may benefit from the speedier addition of amendments as a trade-off since the soil structure (in that case) is already damaged. Tilling can degrade soil structure, which takes time to build, which is created by soil live like microbes creating both drainage channels and pores in the soil and natural glues that help hold soil particles together to reduce the risk of erosion and compaction. Organic matter content in the soil also helps with resisting compaction, improving drainage, and feeding those beneficial microbes; compost or biodegradable mulch that self-composts in place are the typical avenues of supplementing soil organic matter levels. A soil test can also evaluate organic matter content; the percentage can be surprisingly low to be effective. A few of our web pages about soil basics and health go into more detail about what makes a soil healthy and how to deal with degraded soils.
Home gardening seminars/presentations, workshops, and demonstrations tend to be scheduled by individual county Master Gardener programs, so you can check with your local MGs to ask about timing and topics for this year. (You can contact the county MG coordinator on the linked page if the program's web page doesn't include a schedule.) Some state-wide MG program webinars are open to the public, though some are geared towards a MG audience; the former would likely be publicized on the HGIC social media channels (Facebook and Instagram), mentioned in the HGIC newsletter, and/or shared with residents by local MG programs.
Miri
Thank you so much for your thorough and thoughtful responses!
Kathleen
You're welcome!
