How to care for hydrangeas in spring: rules of pruning and feeding

Hydrangea is a true queen of the garden, enchanting with its lush flowers. However, in order for it to reveal all its beauty, it needs careful maintenance.

In order for the hydrangea to delight you with its blooms throughout the season, it is important to take care of it in the spring. Gazeta.ua told us how to do it correctly.

With the onset of heat, it is important to give the hydrangea the opportunity to gradually adapt to new conditions. Remove the shelter from the plant in cloudy weather, first for a short time, and then permanently when it gets used to the air temperature.

Before winter, experienced gardeners mulch Sargent hydrangeas and Oakleaf hydrangeas with compost, peat, pine needles, bark, and dry grass clippings to prevent root death. During April, with the arrival of warmth, this cover can be gradually removed.

How to prune the hydrangea properly

Tree hydrangea

The shoots of this type of hydrangea are cut so as to leave 3-5 buds. Be sure to remove dead, weak, and crooked branches. If the bush is dense, you can cut out some of the shoots down to the soil.

Panicle hydrangea

Panicle hydrangea also needs both sanitary and formative pruning. If you leave two buds each, you can expect large flowers, but they will bloom later.

With moderate pruning, leave about four buds. They bloom earlier, but are not large.

Sargent, Oakleaf, Petiolate hydrangeas, etc.

Hydrangeas that bloom on last year's shoots need only a sanitary pruning. That is, you only need to remove damaged, weak shoots and those that are too dense.

What hydrangeas are fertilized with in spring

Hydrangeas need to be fertilized after removing the winter mulch. For this purpose, use nitrogen, complex fertilizers or special hydrangea mixtures.

If you are using dry fertilization, you need to carefully and shallowly loosen the soil and incorporate the fertilizer into it. After that, you should water the plant and mulch it again with 5-10 centimeters of sawdust, shavings, or peat.

To prepare a liquid fertilizer, you need to stir 20 grams of urea in 10 liters of water and water the bush with 2.5 liters of this solution.

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