Hydrangeas always bring a sense of magic and romance to the landscape. Those voluminous blooms are just so breathtaking! There are so many spectacular varieties to choose from, each with its own unique colours, size, and features, so they’re easy to incorporate into your landscape design. Hydrangea care isn’t particularly challenging, but you’ll have the best success if you plant them in a location with the perfect amount of sun. Here’s how to grow them in Muskoka!
Where Do Hydrangeas Grow Best?
Hydrangeas are a bit picky when it comes to sunlight. Too much shade, and you won’t get very many of their signature blooms. Too much sun, and they’ll end up getting scorched! The perfect happy medium is a spot with lots of soft morning light but in the shade during the intense, hot afternoon sun. East-facing walls or fences are perfect, but you can also choose a spot with dappled shade underneath a tree canopy.
If you can find a spot where your hydrangeas can live comfortably, you can expect plenty of gorgeous flowers with little maintenance required in return! Here’s how to keep them blooming brightly all summer long.
Hydrangea Care: Water and Fertilizer
Hydrangeas prefer consistently moist soil, and they don’t like when it completely dries out. However, you want to avoid soggy, waterlogged soil, as this can cause root rot—a death sentence for most landscape plants! To avoid this, ensure your soil is loose, well-draining, and full of compost. Compost helps create the perfect soil conditions, so moisture is retained, but excess still drains through properly.
You’ll want to water your hydrangea generously for the first couple months after planting—about every two days unless we’re getting lots of rain. Once it’s nicely established, we recommend deeply watering your shrub twice a week. Deep watering less frequently is much more effective than giving your shrub a little bit of water every day. You want to ensure that moisture soaks through the roots and keeps them hydrated.
Fertilize your hydrangeas once per month with a slow-release, granular fertilizer. Make sure none of the granules land on the foliage—it can burn them! Spread it across the soil surface, water it in, and your shrub will receive a steady stream of all the necessary nutrients. A balanced 10-10-10 formula should work just fine, but if you don’t see as many blooms as you’d like, you can use a formula with slightly higher phosphorus to stimulate flowering.
Pruning Hydrangeas
Some light pruning can help maintain a tidy, even shape for your hydrangea shrubs, but you won’t need to cut them back dramatically. Remove dead, damaged, or diseased branches, and if anything sticks out awkwardly, you can remove those as well. Make diagonal cuts over a branch node—those are the bumps along the branches where new growth emerges.
The best time to prune hydrangeas varies depending on what kind you have growing in your garden. Some varieties bloom on new wood in the summer, while other varieties bloom on old wood earlier in the growing season. Varieties that bloom on new wood, such as panicle (eg. Limelight, Bobo, Quick Fire) and smooth (eg. Annabelle) hydrangeas, should be pruned in late fall or in the early spring before new growth appears. Those that bloom on old wood, like bigleaf (Endless Summer varieties) and climbing hydrangeas, should be pruned in the summer immediately after they have finished flowering.
Some hybrid varieties rebloom through spring and summer on new wood and old wood. The best time to prune them is in May so that you won’t lose as many flower buds.
We hope this guide to hydrangea care has been helpful! If you’d like to explore the different varieties of hydrangeas in Port Carling and Bala, Ontario, visit our garden centres to see all the incredible cultivars ready to take home!
