They have begun to trickle in. "Why doesn’t my hydrangea have flowers?" They tell me their stories of how it has never flowered or hasn’t flowered in years.

Most hydrangeas flower on the wood they made last year. Which means right after it finished flowering last year, it began making flower buds, which would become this year’s flowers. So the first thing I ask in my quest to help these sad gardeners is "When did your husband prune it?" (Now, I don’t mean to pick on the men in my gardening life, but for some reason they get off the couch in late September and sculpt the garden in to a neat, tidy and controlled look. Something primal? Dreaming of meatballs for winter dinners?) When a hydrangea gets pruned in late autumn, most of the flower buds get wacked off too. There may be a stray couple low in the back- where he couldn’t reach- always a sure sign of a pruning mis-step. Most hydrangea should be pruned right after their flowers would no longer look good in a vase on the table-approximately early August. Cutting flowers while they are gorgeous and making beautiful bouquets for you (or a friend) is the best way to prune your hydrangea. A few hydrangeas do flower on new wood. ‘Annabelle’, an old fashioned white, with huge flowers, likes to be cut to 6-8" tall every early spring for best flower size. There are pruning tricks to be considered with the Pee Gee types, such as ‘Limelight’ and ‘Pinky Winky’- prune down hard in the spring for fewer, but larger flowers and an arching shrub habit. Don’t prune for more, smaller flowers and a more compact habit. The newer hydrangeas hitting the market, such as ‘Endless Summer’ are what is called "remondant", which means they flower on both old and new wood so your are nearly guaranteed to be unaffected by pruning at the wrong time. Also note, that other than removing dead flowers, you don't HAVE to prune it to reduce the shrub size. Unless, of course "the shrub got too big"........

Another reason a hydrangea might not flower is too much shade. Yes, they like a shadier spot. They should get a ½ day of sun, hopefully out of the 11-3 sun, which makes them sadly wilt. It may be the hydrangea used to flower like crazy, but now a tree has grown larger, casting more and more shade. The answer there would be to move the hydrangea to a sunnier spot.

If your hydrangea is on the North side of the house, the winter winds fiercely blowing on it can freeze the flower buds. The solution there is to put up a winter time temporary burlap screen, thus providing a protective coat. Note that some hydrangeas don’t have winter hardy flower buds, and although the shrub may look fantastic all summer, the flower buds will freeze winter after winter.

Force-feeding chemical fertilizers (such a Miracle Grow) to your plants can also cause lots of dark green, wonderful foliage- at the expense of your flowers. The shrub is so busy getting its Nitrogen fix, that it forgets to make flower buds! Too much chemical fertilizer will also cause the stems to grow excessively long so if you do get flowers, the stems will not be strong enough to support them. The result: A hydrangea flower donut on the ground circling the lush green shrub.

Check out the "lacecap" types if you don’t like the flamboyant, large "mophead" types. Lacecaps are much more delicate looking, with a horizontal layered look. Our native oakleaf hydrangea is a winner in the garden too- bold foliage turns purples, oranges and reds in autumn, holding the foliage show past Christmas. Large, white, coneshaped flowers age to dusky pink.

Blue flowers or pink flowers? That is the (other) question. Hydrangea flowers are pH sensitive. The pH of your soil can be easily determined with a simple 99 cent test. Or you can watch what color your hydrangea flowers are. Blue flowers = acidic soil, Pink flowers = alkaline soil. You can perform flower magic by manipulating your pH to make the flower the color you want. Add Aluminum Sulphate or Iron Sulphate to get vivid blues or raise the pH with lime to get strong pinks. White flowering types are not fooled with magic- they will remain white.

Get your hydrangea groove on! All the spring flowering chaos has come to a close, and here struts in the hydrangeas to continue the show. Happy Planting! ~Erica