Hydrangeas are a firm garden favourite, and it's no surprise why, thanks to their impressive blooms and ability to come back each year. However, there are a few steps you can take to ensure you can get more from the beloved flowers.
Once you've mastered how to prune your hydrangeas, the rest of their care is pretty straightforward. And yet there are some ways you can level up your gardening skills and maximise your hydrangea's blooms and make them last even longer – and it's not too late to cut hydrangeas back for spring.
The latest tip comes from gardening professional Sarah Raven's Instagram @sarahravensgarden, where her head gardener, Josie Lewis, has shared a simple yet surprising tip for ensuring your hydrangeas grow bigger and better than ever.
Sarah Raven hydrangea pruning tip
In the same way you can prune your roses to maximise blooming, hydrangeas can also benefit from specific pruning methods. While regular pruning is always useful, using some professional tips and tricks can ensure you get more from your plant.
"To ensure that your hydrangea heads all have enough room to grow, we recommend cutting back the stems to different heights. This way, you will create layers and give each bloom room to show off," explains Head Gardener at Perch Hill, Josie Lewis.
Using your essential gardening tools to cleanly chop your spent hydrangea heads at different heights will not only give them a chance to bloom bigger but will also give your hydrangea shrub a fuller appearance once fully grown.
Not only can you mistakenly prune plants that shouldn't be deadheaded, but you can also easily prune your plants incorrectly. For hydrangeas, you'll want to be cautious with how much you chop off.
"Don't cut them too short; a longer stem will become a stronger stem later in the year. The shorter cut stems can go down low to around 20cm or wherever you see a node," says Josie.
Cutting your stems too low is a common winter gardening mistake, and whilst it isn't detrimental to your plants, it will stunt their growth.
Shop hydrangea pruning essentials
These sturdy pruners have ergonomically designed handles for comfortable use and a sharp, steel blade. An essential gardening tool.
These bypass loppers are ideal for smoothly cutting stems up to 3.8cm in diameter, and feature lightweight, SoftGrip-covered handles.
Developed with Kew Gardens' horticultural team, this pruning saw features a folding carbon steel blade that locks into position.
Luckily, hydrangeas are pretty hardy and will be able to provide an impressive display even if you make a mistake when pruning. As one of the fastest-growing shrubs, they don't take much to thrive in your garden and learning these pruning tips will only give them even more vigour to grow.
If you're not sure whether or not your hydrangeas are still fighting fit after winter, try the scratch test when pruning. Should you be able to see green under the brown bark, then your hydrangeas are very much alive and simply waiting to regrow in the warmer weather.
If you want to have even more hydrangeas why not try learning how to take hydrangea cuttings? That way you can add the plants to different areas of your garden without spending any extra money.
