Winter Damage On Hydrangea

This is winter damage. At this point any of the canes that don’t have leaves will not form them so you should prune those out by cutting them all the way down to close to the ground, or to just above the first set of leaves you come to from the top down. Cut off those tiny buds that everyone is tempted to leave “because there’s still some green on them…maybe they’ll still open up?” They won’t open up. If a bud hasn’t opened and started to grow by now it’s toasted. Cutting the short, old stubby canes that are dead away from these plants (down to the ground) will help the plant to look better and the new growth from the bottom won’t have to fight the old, dead sticks. Also the plant won’t be so much of a “leaf catcher.” Leave any stem that has a growing bud because those will produce your flowers for this summer. Read more about pruning hydrangeas, and download a pdf about pruning this type of hydrangea, here: http://www.gardenlady.com/read-articles/how-to-prune-hydrangeas/