How to Deadhead Endless Summer Hydrangeas for Better Blooms
Endless Summer hydrangeas are a favorite among gardeners due to their ability to bloom on both old and new growth, extending their blooming season from early summer to late summer. To keep your hydrangea flowers looking their best and encourage continuous blooming, deadheading is essential. Let’s explore the best time and technique to deadhead hydrangeas, ensuring a thriving display for the current season and the next year.
This post is all about pruning endless summer hydrangeas.
Table of Contents
What is Deadheading?
This type of maintenance can be super important for a plant. It’s the removal of spent blooms to encourage new, healthy growth and can help with with new blooms. You’re encouraging your plants to produce even more vibrant blooms while keeping them healthy and tidy. Think of it as giving your flowers a little refresh—less energy wasted on seed production, more energy for gorgeous new blossoms!
What are Endless Summer Hydrangeas?
This type of variety of hydrangeas has blooms that grow on both old and new growth. These are a type of bigleaf hydrangea. With this ability, they can bloom from spring until late summer. Other types of hydrangeas only bloom once a season and on old growth.
What Types of Hydrangeas are Endless Summer?
There are several different kinds of endless summer hydrangeas that you might want to consider growing:
- BloomStruck Reblooming
- Blushing Bride Reblooming
- Pop Star Reblooming
- Summer Crush Reblooming
- The Original Reblooming
- Twist n’ Shout Reblooming
Other Types of Hydrangeas That Benefit from Deadheading
- Smooth Hydrangeas: Like the popular Summer Crush Hydrangea, these also benefit from deadheading.
- Panicle Hydrangeas: These tolerate full sun and can be lightly deadheaded for a cleaner look.
- Oakleaf Hydrangeas: Typically need less deadheading but can benefit from occasional tidying.
- Mountain Hydrangeas: Another hydrangea variety that responds well to deadheading for extended blooms.
Why Deadhead Endless Summer Hydrangeas?
Deadheading hydrangeas helps promote better blooms by redirecting energy from spent flowers into new flower heads. It also enhances the plant’s tidy appearance and reduces the risk of powdery mildew, which can affect bigleaf hydrangeas like the Endless Summer variety. Removing spent blooms can lead to larger, healthier buds and more vibrant pink blooms or blue blooms, depending on your soil’s pH.
The Best Time to Deadhead Hydrangeas
The right time to deadhead depends on the type of hydrangea. Endless Summer hydrangeas benefit from deadheading throughout the growing season. In warmer climates, this can be done as early as late winter or early spring to remove any dried flower buds from the previous year.
For best results:
- Early summer to late summer: Remove spent blooms to encourage new flower heads.
- Late fall: Stop deadheading to allow the plant to enter dormancy.
- Late winter to early spring: Lightly prune any dead wood while preserving healthy buds.
How to Deadhead Endless Summer Hydrangeas
Now that we’ve exhausted the topic of what deadheading is and why it should be done, what types of hydrangeas are considered Endless Summer and which types of hydrangeas benefit from deadheading, and when, let’s look out how to do it. Deadheading your plants is super easy!
- Locate the Spent Flowers: Look for spent flowers that have faded or turned brown.
- Find the Next Set of Leaves: Identify the next set of leaves or a healthy bud lower on the stem.
- Make the Cut: Using clean, sharp pruners, cut just above the next set of leaves or at the base of the plant for longer stems.
- Dispose of Debris: Remove the spent flowers to prevent disease.
Common Mistakes to Avoid
There are a few things to know about when pruning your hydrangeas that can be detrimental to the health of the plant and/or deplete the amount of blooms your plants have.
What to avoid:
- Pruning too much: Little pruning is needed; excessive cutting can reduce next season’s blooms.
- Cutting off healthy buds: Be careful not to remove developing flower buds, especially on old wood hydrangeas.
- Not providing proper care: Ensure your hydrangeas are planted in well-drained soil and receive morning sun with afternoon shade for optimal growth.
Caring for Endless Summer Hydrangeas After Deadheading
After deadheading the hydrangeas, there is some additional care that they may need for more blooms. To ensure a strong blooming season, follow these care tips:
- Apply a Layer of Mulch: This helps retain moisture and protect roots in winter gardens.
- Maintain Acidic Soil: Blue blooms develop in acidic soil, while pink flowers thrive in alkaline conditions.
- Water Regularly: Especially in full sun locations, to prevent stress.
- Fertilize Wisely: Use a balanced fertilizer to encourage growth.
Are There Any Types of Hydrangeas that Shouldn’t Be Deadheaded?
Yes, there are some types of hydrangeas that don’t benefit from deadheading. Hydrangeas that bloom on old wood, such as older bigleaf, mountain, climbing, and oakleaf. There are exceptions within these types pf hydrangeas. As we just discussed, endless summer are bigleaf hydrangeas and they are an exception to this rule. To ensure the best care for your type of hydrangea, always read up on the variety that you have.
Other Care Tips for Hydrangeas
Hydrangeas don’t do well in full intense heat. In fact, they’ll get rather burnt in the sun. They enjoy partial to even full shade. Morning sun and afternoon shade are ideal for them. There are however some varieties that can tolerate a bit more sun. I would most definitely avoid a spot that has full sun.
Hydrangeas also require consistent moisture and should be watered regularly. Keep the soil moist, but not soggy. The soil should be well-draining. Hydrangeas can be great in containers, but you’ll find that you’ll need to water them a lot more frequently. Soil in containers tend to dry out much more quickly in comparison to growing in the ground. Putting mulch down is very helpful to maintain soil moisture.
Amend the soil by adding organic fertilizers and to help adjust the soil pH. What’s so fascinating with hydrangeas is that the soil pH affects what color their blooms will be. For blue blooms, lower the pH with sulfur or peat moss. To raise the pH, consider putting down lime for pink blooms.
[RELATED POST: Planting in the Shade: What Should You Plant with Hydrangeas]
Final Thoughts
Deadheading Endless Summer hydrangeas is a simple yet effective way to encourage healthy buds and new flower heads throughout the blooming season. By following these steps, you’ll enjoy lush hydrangea blooms from early summer to late summer, with the potential for next year’s flowers to be even better. Happy gardening!
This post was all about deadheading endless summer hydrangeas.
