kentinada
Newly Registered
Posts: 1
Joined: Mon Aug 03, 2015 5:24 pm

Macrophylia Hydrangeas won't blossom

I've read lots of articles on why our macrophylia hydrangeas might not be blossoming but as far as my wife and I can tell, we're not doing any of the obvious things wrong. I'm beginning to suspect the fact that we started having our yard sprayed for mosquitos a few years ago. We live in the woods and would get carried off if we didn't spray for mosquitos. Anyway, I think it was about the same time that our plants quite blooming but my wife is not sure. One other interesting point though. The bug spraying stops in mid September and last year in October, one of the 5 plants we have got some buds. Of course they got hit by frost soon there after as we live in lower Michigan.

Any ideas for us? The plants all look healthy as can be but no flowers!

luis_pr
Greener Thumb
Posts: 824
Joined: Sun Jul 05, 2009 8:31 am
Location: Hurst, TX USA Zone 7b/8a

Well, I was not sure what possibilities to exclude when you said that the "obvious things" do not apply. So I am going to wing it. By the way, you can check your insecticide label to see if it says whether or not it will affect plants like hydrangeas and their blooms.

H. macrophyllas normally begin to develop flower buds in July down here and later as you "go" further north in the map. That means that winter issues and pruning at incorrect times can interfere with bloomage.

The normal times for macs to bloom would be in late Spring. If the shrubs rebloom (say, it is one of those Endless Summer-type of macs), they will rebloom again later on... and very likely around this time.

So, depending on what exactly is going on, this could be your 2nd set of blooms... if your shrubs reblooms. Not sure why you got none at this time last year, unless there was a pruning issue or something that zapped the flower buds or ate them... like deer/squirrels/bunnies/weather.

So for now, I am wondering if the first set of blooms may have been killed by winter. The last two winters have been a HUGE hydrangea problem in many places north and even south of the country. Very, unusually cold temperatures can kill the flower buds if you do not winter protect. You can also have temperatures that fluctuate up-down enough that they make the shrub break dormancy just as another bunch of sub-freezing weather is about to hit. I had zero/zip/nada blooms during the Winter of 2013-2014. During Winter 2014-2015, I still had half of the macs that did not bloom.

Due to very mild winters, I never winter protect but my shrubs would have benefited from it if I had.

Luis



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