What To Do With Dying Hydrangea Blooms In The Fall: What should you do with your hydrangea blooms that are dying and drying on your bushes this fall? Hydrangea blooms are beautiful when they are dying back, unlike many other perennials. Flower petals dry nearly intact instead of falling from the bush.
What To Do With Dying Hydrangea Blooms In The Fall
Texture and detail are stunning. So much so that many gardeners pick their best blooms to dry for flower arrangements, interior decorating, and more. Drying hydrangea blooms for indoor use is covered later in the article.
As winter approaches, most gardeners wonder what to do with their plants’ remaining blooms. Can they stay on until spring? Are they to be removed before winter? Will cutting them off affect next year’s bloom?
What To Do With Dying Hydrangea Blooms In The Fall
To Deadhead Or Not To Deadhead Old Blooms In The Fall
Allowing old hydrangea blooms to survive winter is the biggest question. Is it harmful?
Short answer: no. Leaving old blooms on the plants to dry and die won’t harm them. After the blooms dry and the bush goes dormant, they’re harmless. After drying, they don’t use plant resources during winter.
Gardeners prefer to keep blooms all winter. In a barren winter landscape, long-stemmed blooms add interest. Especially when frost, snow, or ice cover their dried petals.
Two Reasons Not To Leave Dying Hydrangea Blooms On Over Winter
Deer, squirrels, and other animals rarely bother most hydrangeas, but in areas with harsher winters, they do. Non-hibernating animals may have trouble finding food in heavy snows and inclement weather.
They lose most of their fresh food during the dormant months, and heavy snows can cover other ground food sources. Hydrangeas’ upright blooms can be a target when they do! Unfortunately, most hydrangeas bloom on old wood.
Old wood is previous year’s growth. When deer or squirrels eat the blooms, they often eat the branches too. They remove future blooms too. You can avoid this risk by deadheading fall blooms only.
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Avoiding Fall Pruning – What To Do With Dying Hydrangea Blooms In The Fall
Avoid pruning hydrangea wood when removing blooms before winter. Not even small shapes. It can cause late summer and fall hydrangeas that bloom on new wood problems and remove next year’s blooms from summer blooming varieties that bloom on old wood.
Any pruning other than bloom removal can stimulate late growth. Late-season growth has two drawbacks. The plant uses energy to grow first. Energy that should be saved for next year’s flowers and foliage. The new growth is tender too. Winter is coming, and that tender new growth is susceptible to freezing.
Deadhead old blooms in late fall by removing only the bloom below its stem. Some of your blooms can be completely removed for drying and decorating, but keep that to a minimum. Remove only the blooms to keep the plant dormant. It handles winter well because of that.
Saving Old Hydrangea Blooms For Arrangements – What To Do With Dying Hydrangea Blooms In The Fall
Hydrangea blooms can be saved and dried in several ways, but the easiest is to cut them and dry them in a vase or container with water. This requires cutting more of each saved stem than deadheading. The good news is that taking only a few from each plant will only slightly affect blooming on old wood.
Wait until the bloom heads are mostly dry on the bush. Cut the bloom stem to 12–14 inches with sharp pruners. Take the leaves and put them in water. Place down in the container with 1/4–1/2 of the stems in water. Link to Ratcheting Hand Help Garden Pruners
Avoid direct sunlight and place in a cool room. Putting bloom heads in water may seem odd, but it slows drying. Thus, more muted bloom colors are preserved. Flowers take two to three weeks to dry and be ready for use. This fall, treat your hydrangeas and their dying blooms well. Best of all, more blooms next spring!
