5 Things You Should Do Now After Hydrangeas Finish Blooming—Are You Missing Any?

So, you’ve been enjoying those gorgeous, big, colorful hydrangea blossoms lighting up your garden like a summer fireworks show, right? And who wouldn’t? Those blooms are absolute show-stoppers! But now that they’re starting to fade, what’s next? Just kick back and let nature take care of itself? Well, not if you want those stunning flowers to come back strong next year!

Hydrangeas are pretty easygoing plants, but the care you give them right after their blooming cycle wraps up can make all the difference for the next season. The way you handle them now could mean the difference between a garden full of massive blooms or none at all. So, sometimes you need to act quickly and get those plants ready for another spectacular show next year.

So, if your hydrangeas have just wrapped up their blooming spectacular, here are a few quick tips to keep them ready for the next show.

1-    Deadhead Spent Blooms on Your Hydrangeas

One thing you should always do as their floral displays get tired and are about to fade, is to walk around, check your hydrangeas and deadhead them.  Don’t allow the big inflorescences of the shrubs to go to seed; your plants will divert their energy into reproducing, taking it from the leaves, which you still want lush, and next year’s performance…

Use a sharp and sterile blade, I find it better with hydrangeas, because the stems can be quite tough; I use a grafting knife, but anything similar will be fine. Just make sure you give a sharp cut just before the first two leaves under the inflorescence.

Then, don’t forget to sterilize your blades for every new plant.

This will also keep the overall flowering spectacle neater, fresher, more colorful and on the whole more attractive. But what will you do with all those spent blooms, throw them all on your compost heap?

2- Allow Some Hydrangea Blooms to Dry Naturally on the Shrub

But wait! Don’t chuck your hydrangeas’ spent blooms on the compost heap! At least not all… Keep the best looking ones, they make really perfect dry flowers! Just make an arrangement with them, and enjoy them for many more weeks indoors.

You can let some of the inflorescences to dry on the shrubs, or cut them and dry them in a dry and warm place, in the Sun if you wish. It’s up to you: they will still make excellent and long-lasting flower arrangements.

3- Prune Summer Flowering Hydrangeas After They Finish Blooming

After your hydrangea finishes its blooming season, you’ll need to do a little upkeep to keep it healthy and ensure a stunning display next year. The kind of care you need depends on the type of hydrangea you’re growing. It’s important to know if your hydrangeas bloom on “old wood” or “new wood” because this affects how and when you should prune them. If you’re not exactly sure which type you have, you can often figure it out by watching when it blooms.

Old Wood Hydrangeas

Old wood hydrangeas are those that bloom on stems that are a year old. This means they set their flower buds on the growth from the previous year. For these types, any new growth that appears from mid-summer until the first frost will contain the buds for the next year’s flowers. Common old wood varieties include:

• Bigleaf hydrangea (Hydrangea macrophylla)
• Oakleaf hydrangea (Hydrangea quercifolia)
• Mountain hydrangea (Hydrangea serrata)
• Climbing hydrangea (Hydrangea petiolaris)
• False hydrangea (Hydrangea caerulea or Deinanthe caerulea)

To ensure these varieties bloom well next year, it’s crucial to prune them immediately after they finish flowering. This typically means pruning in mid to late summer, right after the blooms fade. Pruning too late in the season is a common mistake that can lead to cutting off the very wood that would have produced next year’s flowers. If you wait until late summer or fall to prune, you’re likely removing the branches that carry the buds for the next season.

Don’t wait too long to prune your summer-blooming hydrangeas!

One of the biggest mistakes people make with hydrangeas is pruning them too late in the season. This can result in cutting off the wood that would have held next year’s flowers, which leads to a disappointing lack of blooms.

To keep your old wood hydrangeas blooming beautifully, try to prune them within a week after they’ve finished blooming. Start by deadheading any spent blooms. If you leave these blooms on, they will start to form seeds, which can drain energy away from the plant that should be going toward next year’s growth. The quicker you remove the fading flowers, the better—it helps the plant save energy for the next round of blooming.

Once you’ve taken off the old blooms, give your hydrangea a light trim to shape it. Start by cutting away any dead or diseased wood to keep the plant healthy.

Next, thin out the plant a bit, but be gentle—just snip a few branches here and there to improve airflow and set the stage for a nice shape next year. This helps prevent disease and encourages robust growth.

After you’re done pruning, make sure to clean up all the trimmings and add them to your compost pile. With old wood hydrangeas, remember that less is more. They don’t need heavy pruning to thrive; a little touch-up to control wayward branches is usually enough to keep them blooming beautifully.

• Always use sterile blades for each plant, pruning shears, secateurs or in some cases you may need loppers.
• Cut all the dead and sick wood.
• Thin your hydrangea, but only lightly, just cut some branches that block ventilation and give your shrub a shape for next year.
• Remove all you have pruned off, and put it on your compost heap.

With oakleaf hydrangeas, the rule is always to do minimal pruning.

On the other hand, you should not prune new wood hydrangea varieties after they blossom! They need to be strong and get over the cold months, and you can cut them in late winter or early spring.

This is because new wood hydrangeas will grow flower buds on the branches they produce next year… And they are:

• Smooth hydrangea (Hydrangea arborescens)
• Panicle hydrangea (Hydrangea paniculata)

So, wait till late winter or early spring to prune new wood hydrangeas, and this is how to do it like a pro.

• Always disinfect blades before you prune each plant, you will need sharp pruners, secateurs or sometimes loppers.
• Prune off all dead and sick wood.
• Remove some of the older branches, this will encourage new growth.
• Shape your hydrangea shrub.

And that’s it! But remember, you will have to sit it out and wait till late winter or early summer.

In any case, you can do a little tidying up, whichever type of hydrangea you have in your garden. You can always look for sick branches, cut them off, and keep removing diseased or yellowed leaves from your hydrangeas, whichever type they are. This will keep them looking fabulous till the end of the season.

4- Take Cuttings to Propagate Your Hydrangeas!

As long as the blooms are spent by late August, you can propagate hydrangeas after they have lightened up your garden with their massive floral displays. After that, it becomes a bit too late (you can still try till September).

In fact, it is actually a good time to take hydrangea cuttings, because the young shoots are strong enough to start off their own independent life, but not woody enough to make it hard for them to grow new roots and leaves.

Propagating hydrangeas is the safest and easiest way to get new plants for your garden – or your neighbor’s…

• Select a fresh, healthy and flowerless stem, it should still be green and flexible, not woody and hard.
• With sharp and sterile blades, (shears or a knife), cut about 4 to 6 inches (10 to 15 cm), severing 1 inch (2.5 cm) below a node. You take a longer cutting and then give it a sharp cut later on.
• Make sure it has at least 3 sets of leaves, and that the top ones are healthy and young.
• Remove the 2 bottom leaves.
• Dip the cutting in a rooting agent (hormones, apple cider vinegar etc.), making sure you cover the wounds left from the two bottom leaves.
• Prepare a container with well drained, organically rich soil (loamy is ideal).
• Insert the cutting in it, leaving two sets of leaves above ground.
• Water deeply, so that the soil settles.
• Place the pot in a warm, well ventilated and bright place, but in filtered light, not direct Sunlight.
• Keep watering your cutting when the top 1 inch (2.5 cm) of soil dries up.
• After 3 weeks, tug the seedling very lightly, just to see if it is setting roots.
• You can transplant the cutting when it has a strong root system (usually after 4 to 6 weeks).

It’s not hard as you can see, and if you have a propagation dome, use it! And finally…

5-   Prepare Your Hydrangeas for the Winter Months

Now the season will be getting wetter, and even colder soon, so, it’s time to prepare your hydrangea shrubs for winter. There are only three key things you need to do to make sure they will come back vigorous and willing to bloom next year…

Improve drainage! With the rainy season coming, you don’t want your hydrangeas go have “wet feet”. After they have blossomed, it is a good time to scatter a good layer of coarse sand at the base of your shrubs. How thick will depend on how well or poorly drained your soil is. But a good 1 inch (2.5 cm) is a start. And remember to use gypsum as well if your soil is heavy clay.

Don’t disturb the soil though, just allow the rain to drive the sand into the soil.

I also suggest you check out if the mulch at the base of your hydrangeas is still in good shape. Sure, you laid it in spring and it was perfect, but with months going by, rains etc., it may have thinned by now, or have holes in it.

So, a good time to replenish it, or lay it afresh, is just after they bloom, and this will keep their roots warm during the cold winter months.

Finally, fall can be quite humid, and, in many countries, it is still a fairly warm season. And that’s a problem, because pests and molds thrive in these conditions. And hydrangeas have very dense foliage – so they can hide there. What is more, yellowing and rotting leaves are like a feast for some of them…

So, keep checking your hydrangeas for pests, looking deep into the shrubs and under the leaves. They may look healthy from the outside, but hide disease from view. Then, use your habitual methods for dealing with them (usually, Neem oil works for basically everything…)

Now, your hydrangeas are finally ready to face the harsh winter months to come!

A Little Care After Your Hydrangeas Bloom Will Go a Long Way!

As you can see, there isn’t anything so special to do after your hydrangeas have finished regaling you with their massive blossoms. The main mistake is to confuse old with new good varieties, the rest is simple and basically ordinary care.

But give them a tiny bit of TLC now, and you’ll see how generous they will be next year with their flowers!