8 Things Your Hydrangeas Need Before August Ends (Most Gardeners Do #1 Backwards)

🔗 Get a beautiful perennial garden with less watering, fewer costly mistake from Henry’s Garden Blueprint: https://henrysgardensecrets.com/ Put the pruners down. That is the most valuable thing your hydrangeas need from you in August, and almost nobody says it out loud. Three separate universities publish the same date - August first - and after it, every cut you make on the wrong type of hydrangea is next summer's flowers going into the yard waste bag. Maryland's extension ranks pruning at the wrong time as the number one reason hydrangeas don't flower. None of this is your fault. The tag on that pot never mentioned a deadline, and half the advice online is written for a different kind of hydrangea than the one you are standing in front of. So in this one I go through what actually matters in August, and where the standard advice falls apart. The blue-and-pink story is wrong in a way that matters, and two universities state the real reason plainly - it is not the acidity that colors the flower. That distinction is why people follow the pH advice for a season and nothing changes. There is something your plant does at two in the afternoon that looks exactly like thirst and is not, and Maryland gives you a two-part test you can run tonight. Two of the common types have no August deadline at all, for a reason that is simple once you hear it - and two more that people put in that safe group do not belong there. And it is possible nothing is wrong with your plant at all. It may simply be too young, and one university says so plainly. Everything here is sourced to university extension services, including a Florida field trial that put an actual number on the reblooming varieties - and I tell you where that number stops being useful. WHICH ONE HAVE YOU GOT? Tell me in the comments. The big round mophead, the cone-shaped one that goes pink by itself, or the white ball on floppy stems. If you do not know, describe it and somebody will tell you - including me. I am asking because the answer changes half of the advice in this video. SUBSCRIBE I am going through my own yard one plant at a time and telling you what I got wrong. Sources referenced: University of Georgia Extension, Clemson Cooperative Extension, North Carolina State Extension, University of Maryland Extension, Iowa State University Extension, University of Minnesota Extension, Illinois Extension, Penn State Extension, University of New Hampshire Extension, University of Massachusetts Extension, University of Arkansas Extension, Washington State University Extension, University of Florida IFAS. #hydrangeas #hydrangea #augustgardening #pruninghydrangeas #whymyhydrangea #gardeningtips #endlesssummer #limelight #annabelle #hydrangeacolor #gardenmistakes #americangardening #gardeningforseniors #shrubs #flowergarden