Pruning Panicles

It’s about time…. It’s about time to prune your Panicle Hydrangeas.

Now, you might be a fan of autumn and winter interest—visual interest created by remnants of summer-blooming plants that add texture and color to what might otherwise be a snow-white landscape. Most gardeners are such fans. They purchase a good number of plants that will help get them through the winter by providing nice sights to be enjoyed by anyone peering out to the garden through frosty windowpanes. But allow other plants to take on this role. Don’t let your Panicle Hydrangeas provide that visual interest. Get pruning!

Panicle Hydrangeas, unlike Bigleaf/Mophead and several other types of Hydrangeas, bloom on new wood. While you’d never want to prune a Mophead in autumn because it sets buds on old wood and would end up with few flowers after its bud-removing haircut, the Panicle Hydrangeas do well to be pruned now. Pruning ensures much-needed control of height and girth of the shrub, shapely overall form, and a great covering of puffy conical blooms next summer.

There are some tricks of the trade when pruning any shrub, but I honestly don’t worry much when it comes to taking the pruners to my Panicle Hydrangeas. I try to stick to cutting each stem to about three nodes from where the present year’s growth began. (You’ll see this when you begin to prune.) But sometimes I cut even deeper into the shrub, to no ill effect. And I surely remove dead branches. I assure you, if you prune now, you’ll be surprised to see the healthy foliage that emerges in spring, and then the blooms that appear by mid-summer. And never fear: These shrubs make up the loss of height quickly, with healthy new-growth stems.

In a past home, I had neighbors who lived one door over, and between us was a strip of their big and beautiful Panicle Hydrangeas. An older couple, they would prune in the earliest weeks of September, lopping off puffy conical blooms that still looked very good to my eye, and then taking the stems down further. They loved their garden, and so I wondered why they would sacrifice all those beautiful flowers that had attracted pollinators in the weeks that came before. But later I realized that they wanted to get their “autumn” chores done before the weather changed: They didn’t want to be pruning in heavy jackets and hats, so they got to work early. Each spring and summer, this work paid off in healthy new shrub growth, good foliage cover, and flowers that were almost too numerous to count. Their pruning invigorated their Panicle Hydrangeas. Autumn and winter interest… they might have liked to achieve it with other plants, but their priority for their Panicle Hydrangeas was to achieve the healthiest growth possible for the following active growing season.

I prune my Panicle Hydrangeas around now, in November, and I do need a heavy jacket and hat. I try to refer to guides before I begin my pruning, but I also break lots of the rules. It is possible do this same pruning in earliest spring, before the new growth appears, but I worry about being “off” in my timing, and so I prefer to prune late in fall.

I always think of keeping the dried flower heads for decoration, although I typically wait so long to do my pruning that the flowers have turned brown by the time I get to work on removing them. Some people save them nonetheless, as they are pre-dried, on the shrub. They use them in displays with autumnal colors, or they spray them with white or metallic paint and use them during the December holidays. I myself simply dispose of them. I guess I am a little spoiled, knowing the fresh display I will see again in just a matter of months, thanks to some vigorous pruning done now.

So, although I am glad you’ve read this, I urge you to back away from your screen and get your jacket on. Make sure your pruners are clean. Get to work. 

It’s time… time to prune your Panicle Hydrangeas.