Hydrangeas failed to Bloom

9 years ago

I have a nice established row of mophead and lace cap hydrangeas that were planted eight years ago on the North-East side of our garage. They had bloomed every year and for the last two years the display was wonderful. I felt like having Scarlett and Rhett over for Tea. Last fall, like almost every fall, I have cut off the dead flower heads and stuffed them (along with some pine needles and other convenient mulchy stuff) down around the remaining branches for a small degree of winter protection.

There are almost no blooms on the plants this year but otherwise the plants are growing very well. Obviously, we had an unusually cold winter. Our temps. dropped to four and three degrees F on the coldest nights while previous year lows were probably 15 to 10 degrees F. I assume the extra cold is responsible for the bloom failure but I have looked online and it appears that the general consensus is that cold down to zero requires no protection at all.

The web info did suggest that a late freeze after budding out was a common cause for failure. I don't recall that we actually had a very late freeze although it was certainly late enough to kill my peach and plum fruit as often happens. Have you all had similar problems? And is Tomorrow just Another Day?

Sort by:Oldest

Comments (7)

lsst
9 years ago
All my hydrangeas did the same thing. I have counted maybe 5 blooms total this year.

Like your hydrangeas, last years blooms were spectacular.

I assume the harsh winter is responsible.

What is bothering me most is that my Endless Summers are not trying to bloom on new wood as advertised. I expected them to bloom even if my heirloom mop heads that bloom on old wood only did not.
surya55_gw
9 years ago
The blame goes to the horrible winter we had last year. Same thing with our mopheads; just a few blooms that the cold didn't kill off. Some hydrangeas bloom on the previous year's wood and when a bad winter comes along, it kills off the woody stems, hence no blooms or very little.
Related Professionals
Southfield Landscape Architects & Landscape Designers · Burlington Landscape Contractors · Bainbridge Island Landscape Contractors · Biloxi Landscape Contractors · Burien Landscape Contractors · Canton Landscape Contractors · Clayton Landscape Contractors · Florham Park Landscape Contractors · La Mirada Landscape Contractors · Lemont Landscape Contractors · Metairie Landscape Contractors · University City Landscape Contractors · Vancouver Landscape Contractors · West Palm Beach Landscape Contractors · Bensenville Landscape Contractors
Claire Pickett
9 years ago
Almost all of mine failed to bloom. I know it's the winter, but they bloom in zone 5. Also most of mine are Endless Summer that bloom on new wood. Very frustrating.
tiarella
9 years ago
The mopheads failed to bloom because they bloom on old wood; my paniculatas and serratas did fine; these bloom on new wood. Next year everything should be back to normal. Some even bloom on old and new wood! Some of mine didn't bloom because they are grown from cuttings and need time (about 3 years) before blooming. I did miss seeing my mopheads.
lsst
9 years ago
My Endless Summers are finally covered with tiny immature buds.
I hope the buds will bloom before the first hard freeze.
Claire Pickett
9 years ago
Yes, the Endless Summers do have tiny buds now...way too late. I wonder what the company would say about this. I sell them at Lowes and will be getting questions I'm sure. New wood should always produce blossoms in my book.

Now some of mind also have BLACK SPOT.
mdod
9 years ago
Glad I stumbled upon this. I have three David Ramsey hydrangeas which are supposed to be genetically identical to Endless Summer. They have grown (too well) and bloomed like crazy since the first year I planted them but they did nothing this year. I just went out and do see some little buds now.

They got bigger than described and I was thinking about moving them this fall but didn't want to go to the effort if something was wrong with them.