hey guys how's it going today I want to
show you how I fertilize and prune my
hydrangeas both things are really easy
to do and I know that there's a lot of
fear surrounding especially pruning
hydrangeas so I'm hoping to eliminate
some of those fears for you today there
are several classifications of
hydrangeas and I'll show you a lot of
them today and how to handle each one of
them let me show you what to look for in
the spring so that you know it's time to
do both of these things I've got a hedge
of fire light hydrangeas back here and
if you look at this branch right here
you can see that those buds right there
are starting to swell and show a little
bit of green that means we've got some
active growth going on and that's really
important for both fertilizing and
pruning because if you put fertilizer
down too early before the plant's even
actively growing it's still in dormancy
and if you have a real rainy season it
can wash some of that fertilizer away
before the plant even has a chance to
utilize it so you want to make sure that
the plants starting to grow so it can
start to actively use that fertilizer
and then with pruning it's really easy
once the plant starts to show those
signs to see what's dead and what's not
dead
so you can go in and prune out easily
what's I'm not living anymore and then
you can just kind of assess the shape
and make a really good decision on where
to prune things and what to prune so
let's talk about fertilizers and the
different types you can use I brought
out a few different examples here I'm
going to try not to put my shadow on any
of these we got a nice sunny day so let
me start with the Halle tone in plant
tone because you know we work with ASP
alma quite a bit and what they recommend
especially if you're growing hydrangeas
that you want to have blue blooms on
they recommend you use Halle tone
coupled with a soil acidifier now it
will all depend on your soil pH your
soil chemistry because you know some
areas are more acidic naturally and
where in which case you wouldn't need to
use a soil acidifier in my area we are
so alkaline that I could use a lot of
Halle tone and a lot of soil acidifier
and I still probably wouldn't get a blue
bloom because our soil is so high pH I
could maybe do it in a container if you
have hydrangeas you want to have bloom
pink or just the type of hydrangeas that
bloom true to their color no matter like
a like the fire light will always bloom
the same color you can't turn this one
blue and summer like that plant tone is
what they recommend for hydrangeas like
that however I work with proven winners
as well quite a bit
I have gotten to be pretty good friends
with one of the gals of spring meadow
nursery which is the home of proven
winners color choice rubs so home of
these beautiful hydrangeas and she
recommends rosetone because this is a
fertilizer for woody flowering shrubs
which a hydrangea is so I tried that out
last year and had really great luck with
it so that's what I'm gonna do this year
when it comes down to it it really
doesn't make a huge difference it just
kind of comes down to a fertilized
hydrangea is gonna do better than a non
fertilized hydrangea so no matter which
one you have just use it um so I'm just
following the instructions on the back
of this bag I'm going to show you how I
do it right here on this one it says to
use one in a quarter cup sprinkled
around the dripline of each plant and
the drip line it has a picture on the
back of the back the drip line is the
area right around the outermost leaves
so we'll just do a circle right around
this shrub right about here so you can
see that's the drip line right there if
that's helpful and these are watered if
I drip right at their root ball so I'm
gonna come around with the hose after
this after I'm done and water in this
fertilizer so oops
Russell's gonna want to get involved
here so I'm just gonna sprinkle it
around like this a little bit more and
then you just work it in with your
fingers like this we don't use any weed
barrier over here or anything like that
if you have weed barrier try to get the
fertilizer underneath it if you can you
can go in closer to the trunk of your
plant if needed if that's the case
because it'll have a lot easier time
getting to the roots that way and not
trying to go through the weed fabric so
that's it that's what I'm going to do to
every single one of my hydrangeas no
matter what variety it is they'll all
get fertilizer like this and I'll water
it in today
Russell unless Russell digs it all away
so as far as pruning goes there's kind
of two groups of hydrangeas those that
bloom on new wood that you can prune in
the spring and that includes hydrangea
paniculata 'z and arborescens and then
there's a group of hydrangeas that you
should not prune in the spring because
they bloom on old wood which means that
they've already formed their buds to
bloom on last year's growth and if you
prune off too much of them then you may
forfeit your blooms for
year and that group includes oak leafs
cerrados which are mountain hydrangeas
and macro filos which are big leaf
hydrangeas and I have I think examples
of every one of them except cerrados so
I want to go around in my garden and
show you each one of them and show you
how I cut and what I cut out so first of
all you can like I said earlier wait
until the buds are a little bit more
swollen so you can see a little bit
better what's alive and what's not I can
pretty much tell because I've been
growing hydrangeas for a little while
what I need to cut out but the first
thing you want to do is rule of thumb is
to cut them down by about a third and I
could go a little bit more than that on
some of mine like our big line lights up
front but the whole goal is to always
maintain a little bit at the base so
that they can form a really good strong
woody base I do know some people though
that cut them all the way back every
year but when you do that to keep them
like in size check that's usually why
you would do something like that you do
forfeit some stem strength because
you're not giving them enough time to
create that nice woody base so like in
this case I'm going to want to take my
hydrangeas down to buy about this much
or so and just create a nice rounded
look and remove all these old blooms so
this is a perfect one right here so I'm
going to follow this branch down to this
nice-looking set of buds right here and
I'm just gonna make my cut just like
that now the other thing you want to
look for is anything that's spindly so
look at this right here see this spindly
branch we don't really want to encourage
energy from this plant to go to this
little spindly branch so I'm just gonna
cut this one out altogether and that's
basically all I do on the paniculata
hydrangeas and it's exactly the same for
arborescens let's head to the incredible
hydrangeas I have next to our fireplace
and I'll show you just quick on those
what I do so I've got one two three four
five six seven incredible hydrangeas in
this hedge I think once they're I mean
they always look beautiful when they
bloom but once they're mature it's gonna
be so gorgeous and I was just looking at
these buds check this out this is what
you want to look for look at those buds
nice and big and healthy looking now
these I'm going to be doing a little bit
more structural shaping so I'm gonna be
taking these down a little bit further
because some of these got smashed down
at the garden center and that's why I
brought them home because I knew that
once I got him in the ground they're
tough
they would recuperate and I was okay
having some structural issues for a few
years so I'm gonna want to cut these up
a little bit differently because some of
them look a little bit mangy so this one
right here I'll show you well we've got
a little little breezy day today we're
gonna follow this one down to this nice
set of buds and cut and so here's
another one this is a nice branch as
well we follow it down to that set of
buds and cut and then on this right here
we've got some spindly stuff like look
at this one right here super spindly and
weak-looking we don't want to perpetuate
that branch so that one's gonna go away
and basically it's just kind of stepping
back assessing your plant cutting out
anything week and then shaping it up
nicely so now let's move to the other
group of hydrangeas and I'll show you
what to do with those so it just
occurred to me that I didn't really
explain myself like you would continue
to cut the entire plant until you've got
the whole thing cut back nicely I just
wanted to show you some examples first
and then I do think we're gonna bring
you along for the whole cut back process
but we'll speed all of that up a little
bit later so this last one is an example
of an oak leaf hydrangea and you can see
the old bloom right here if you follow
it back to this stem you can see the new
shoots for this year which will be new
blooms so all we need to do on this one
is just come down and cut the old bloom
off just like that and it'll be just
exactly the same for your macro phyla
and serratus all you're gonna do is
remove the bloom stock you want to make
sure not to remove any new shoots or
buds on those types okay so now what I'm
going to do is just run around the
garden fertilize all my hydrangeas and
get them all pruned and we will speed
this part up for those of you who would
like to see it more slow motion like
real time we will post an unedited
version of this on our highlights
Channel and that way you can kind of see
it happen a little slower if you learn
better that way so here we go
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all right so they're all trimmed up
fertilized watered in it always feels
good when I get this chore done so now
all we have to do is wait for some new
growth which will happen probably pretty
quick here so I just wanted to end with
if you have a hydrangea and you do not
know what variety or even what kind it
is
I would definitely hold off on pruning
just leave it alone until you can have
somebody help you identify it so take a
picture of the bloom or take a bloom in
to your local garden center see if they
can help you out and if you have a
hydrangea that you've had in your garden
for years and years and it's just not
performing not blooming for you take it
out and put a new variety in there are
so many wonderful varieties out there
that can fit in all different kinds of
locations so I'm just kind of of the
minds that don't keep fighting with
something that's not giving back to you
out in the garden put something in that
will really fill you with joy when you
see it something that will really
perform for you so anyway I hope this
video was helpful to you thank you so
much for watching and we will see you in
the next one bye
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