July - t h a t time of the year for hydrangeas

[luis_pr]

Remember to stop fertilizing hydrangeas around this month or so in order to force them to go dormant as usual. Too much nitrogen in fertilizers can keep the plants in growth mode. Then when the early frosts arrive, if the plant has not prepared for winter, the flower buds could be killed. If your growing season is long, you may still have one or more extra month of fertilizing. But you usually do not want to fertilize plants when temps are at their worst. Switching to a low nitrogen and higher phosphorus fertilizer this time of the year is also not a bad idea.

Stop pruning at around this time. Flower buds develop in the southern states around this time. In the northern states, you may have an extra month before that happens. Just be careful because they are invisible until Spring so there is no way to tell if the plant has developed them already or if it is in the process of developing them.

Check to see if you need supplies of any type to winter protect hydrangeas. It is too early to prepare them for winter but you can now go shopping to make sure you get good prices for all the materials that you use.

You can continue deadheading re-bloomers like Endless Summer in order to trigger more blooms. This may have been a fluke but I noticed the following because it happened also with some roses. During the hottest time of the year, some plants go dormant. If you get blooms now, do not panic if you see that they are either smaller or their color is slightly different from the color you got in Spring.

Mulch, mulch, mulch (3-4")! So you do not have to water a lot. If you have drip irrigation and the temps zoom to the 100s, consider watering with a hose once a week to keep all soil areas near the plant moist.

Keep and eye on the hydrangeas and check if they appear wilted. If the wilting episode looks extreme, immediately water: I give them 1/2 gallon of water but 1 gallon on a large hydrangea is ok. If the wilting episode is not extreme, wait until the next morning to water. Hydrangeas usually recover on their own overnight. You CAN use the finger method to check the soil moisture: insert a finger into the soil to s depth of 4" and water if the soil feels dry or feels almost dry.

During the worst part of the summer, if the weather service announces wind advisories for "tomorrow" in your area, consider watering the night before. Winds, especially during the summer, can make the hydrangeas loose moisture through the leaves faster than they can absorb it through the roots... resulting in wilting episodes.

Luis