Hydrangea Failure to Flower

If planted in the proper conditions, all varieties of hydrangeas will produce a garden of showy, colorful flowers year after year. If your hydrangeas aren’t blooming well, chances are it’s due to one of a few conditions.

• Too Much Shade

While hydrangeas can thrive in all day dappled shade, too much shade doesn’t allow the plant to consume the light it needs for proper blooming. The ideal location for hydrangeas is an area where the plant can receive plenty of morning sunlight but be shaded from the harsher afternoon sun. Hydrangeas are best transplanted in the fall or winter when they have gone dormant, or in the early spring before they have bloomed.

• Improper Pruning

One of the main causes of hydrangeas that fail to flower is improper pruning. Most hydrangeas set their buds in late summer, so if they are pruned down drastically after the buds have set, they will not flower the following spring. Do not prune your hydrangeas that haven’t flowered to see whether they produce new flowers in the spring.

• Late Freeze

Because many hydrangeas set their buds in the fall, they are susceptible to late spring freezes. When the warm weather comes, hydrangeas start to come out of hibernation, so a late spring freeze can kill the emerging buds. Other bad weather may negatively affect the buds as well. Unfortunately, with many hydrangea varieties, there is nothing you can do except attempt to protect them from bad weather the following spring.