Ground Breaking Banter - Rick
It’s hydrangea season! And as sure as summer will be hot and sunny, horticulturists everywhere will be getting the question, “Why isn’t my hydrangea blooming?” Our answer will always be the same: “which type of hydrangea is it?” – and therein lies the crux of the problem with hydrangeas. People think of them as just one plant, when in fact, there are six different species of hydrangeas that are grown in North American gardens, and each one has its own unique characteristics and specific instructions for pruning and maintaining. If you apply a one-size-fits-all approach to hydrangeas, you’ll get wildly different, and not usually satisfying, results.
The reason for this is that four of the six hydrangeas we grow in our gardens bloom on old wood, and two of them bloom on new wood. Another way to think about this is by the amount of time the plant has flower buds on it: old wood blooming hydrangeas create their flower buds for the following year as soon as they finish blooming during the current one so have buds on them for 10-11 months a year, and new wood blooming hydrangeas create their flower buds for that summer once they’ve leafed out in spring, so their flower buds are present for only four months or so. That very long period where the old wood bloomers have flower buds for next year leaves a very wide window of opportunity for things to happen: pruning, weather damage, deer damage, to name a few.
It’s a lot to keep straight, but Proven Winners ColorChoice Shrubs has it all spelled out for you in Hydrangeas Demystified, which you can read here.
Join us on your favorite podcast platform or at the YouTube link above to hear our whole conversation on hydrangeas.
When most people think of our native smooth hydrangea, Hydrangea arborescens, also known as Annabella hydrangea, the plant that comes to mind is the big, round, white blooms, like Incrediball hydrangea. However, if you were to find yourself walking in the woods somewhere in the Blue Ridge mountains or other wooded parts of the Southeast, you’d be likely to walk by our native smooth hydrangea and not even realize it. This is because, like most hydrangeas in the wild, the flowers are not nearly as big and showy; they tend to be lacecaps because they’re not there to look pretty, they’re there to get pollinated, set seed, and continue the line.
Though they do have some ardent fans out there, lacecaps on the whole don’t get a lot of love, and I’d like to change that by singing the praises of Invincibelle Lace hydrangea in this episode. It is actually the only one of our nine different varieties of smooth hydrangea that is a lacecap, so you know it must be special. And it is! The flowers are very large, broad discs of tight pink buds. A ring of showy white sterile florets, each with a pink center, opens around the edge of each disc, and then the pink fertile florets in the centers open to reveal a starry pink burst.
The overall look of Invincibelle Lace is very distinctive, with a strongly horizontal look because of the strong disc shape. As I mentioned when Gatsby Moon oakleaf hydrangea was our plant on trial a few episodes ago, one really special feature of lacecap hydrangeas is that they attract pollinators because all of the pollen and nectar is out in the open, easily accessible, and Invincibelle Lace is no exception. This beautiful hydrangea is crawling with pollinators! The stems are extremely strong so you never need to worry about flopping, they keep the blooms up where the bees, butterflies, and other bugs can find them. You’ll also notice that Invincibelle Lace hydrangea has exceptionally dark green foliage, almost with a blue-ish hue to it, and silvery undersides to the leaves. These may seem like minor details, but they all combine to give this plant a very unique look.
Invincibelle Lace hydrangea is hardy in USDA zones 3-8, and reaches 4-5’ tall and wide. It is not deer resistant, though aside from that, it’s going to be a very trouble-free plant. It can grow in full sun in cooler areas but needs afternoon shade in hot areas.
If you’d like to add Invincibelle Lace smooth hydrangea – or any of the 320+ Proven Winners ColorChoice Shrubs – to your garden or landscape, you’ll find a list of local retailers here.
Gardening Mail Bag - Stacey
As weird and potentially disconcerting as this may seem, it’s actually very common and normal for magnolia varieties with lily-flowered magnolia, M. liliifolia, in their parentage. The flowers are able to open without vernalization – the fancy term for exposure to cold temperatures. And in fact, when this does happen, it typically indicates the plant is healthy and growing vigorously, so you can just enjoy the show. Here are the plants in question:
The answer that we’re about to give you applies for all types and varieties of hydrangea, not just Fairytrail Cascade hydrangeas – the answer is yes, you can deadhead them if you wish. Simply deadheading – removing the old flower heads – is acceptable at any point in the season. It’s not necessary, and it’s neither beneficial or harmful as long as it is done correctly, and is ultimately a matter of personal taste, whether you prefer the look of a plant without the flowers or would like to keep them. To do it correctly, simply hold the flower in your hand and trace the stem back to the first full set of leaves below it. You may encounter some small leaflets – you can ignore those. You’re looking for a full set of larger leaves, directly across from one another. Make your cut just above that set of leaves and you’re good to go!
Deadheading hydrangeas does not encourage rebloom, so whether you see any rebloom on your plant depends on the variety and growing conditions.
Ninebarks are beautiful shrubs for flowers and foliage, but like many plants, when some of their individual stems begin to reach maturity, they become very thick and woody and are less productive. But the cool thing about shrubs is, since they are multi-stemmed, they can be pruned severely back in a process known as rejuvenation pruning. Basically, you cut the whole plant down to stubs and because it has the benefit of a well-established eight year old root system below it, it will put out a bunch of fresh new growth that gives it a whole new lease on life. The best time to do this on a ninebark is when it is dormant this fall or in late winter/early spring. Do be aware that it will remove the flowers for that season but keep it well-watered, maybe give it a couple of doses of fertilizer, and it will begin to grow vigorously as if it were a whole new plant.
Believe it or not, this is actually a fungal condition known as shot hole disease. It’s very common on cherries as well as some related plants, like apricots, plums, and peaches. Though it can look a bit unsightly, it’s not all that harmful, and can be readily managed simply by removing the fallen foliage when it drops in autumn, which will take away spots for the fungal spores to overwinter where they can readily reinfect the plant in spring. You can read more about shot hole disease here.
One of the things that’s really interesting to me about this fungus is that it looks like insect damage, and that there are certain types of insect damage – that of the four lined plant bug comes to mind – that look like fungus. That’s why it’s always a good idea to do your research before reacting when you notice damage on your plants.
Do you have a question for us? We’re happy to help! E-mail us or use the contact tab above. Due to high volume, we may not get to your question, so if you need an answer quickly, please reach out via the Proven Winners website.
Branching News - Rick
Transit officials in California said a stretch of highway was closed for several hours when a truck overturned and spilled its load of tomatoes into the roadway. Caltrans District 10 said crews cleared the tomatoes from the center divide to give northbound traffic a chance to ketchup. (That’s how the news reported it….not Rick!)
A new survey addresses the term “healthwashing.”
A California firefighter stopped a blaze on July 4 with a regular garden hose. (Frankly, we’re just surprised – and happy – that it didn’t kink on him or get caught on something when it was needed most!)
Do you “root” for the bears or the salmon? Live cams on explore.org Brooks Falls – Katmai (cat-may) National Park, Alaska, USA
Animal rescuers in Indiana are trying to solve the mystery of a “slithery surprise” after a large Burmese python was found wandering outside of a home.
“If thissssss guy belongs to you, please call them,” police wrote on Facebook.
Wimbledon’s strawberries were “perfect” for tennis fans this year despite Britain’s soggy spring.
