Late Winter Pruning in the Midwest
It’s time to engage in some late winter pruning here in the Midwest. Hit ’em while they’re still sleeping. In hardiness zone 5B/6A, your soon-to-awaken perennials will thank you for the axe treatment.
By John G. Stamos
Greetings, readers and subscribers, and welcome back. Got a helpful one for you today. It’s a list of the plants in my own zone 5B/6A garden that I like to prune in the late winter no-man’s-land of early/mid March, along with some reasoning, suggestions, extrapolations, and pics to go with it. I’ll also have a few product recs for you at the end.
Before we jump into this one, I’ll quickly mention that there are some exciting (and substantial) changes coming to The Renaissance Garden Guy. One, which has already been partially implemented, is “The Renaissance Garden Guy Photo Gallery.” It’s an ever-evolving, ever-growing collection of images pertinent to all of the content here on The Renaissance Garden Guy. I’ve just now gotten it up and running, and the pics are being added daily. It’ll take a while to get it fully fleshed out, but there are a few pretty good shots already up, and there are plenty more to come. Workin’ on it. The other two changes are coming really soon. They’ll be up and running soon. I’ll fill you in on these as their respective implementation dates get closer. In the meantime, you can click here to see what the photo gallery is shaping up to be, or you can visit it from the menu at the top of the page, or by clicking on the daylily image link on the homepage.
Alright, sports fans, back to the topic at hand. Break out your pruners, scissors, or scimitars, and let’s get cuttin’!
Late Winter Pruning in the Midwest
In my part of the world, late winter is fairly cold and bleak. March temperatures can range, generally, from 20° to 50° Fahrenheit. Average temps are usually right at freezing, give or take a degree or two. Although many of the perennials in my garden are dormant at this time, there are a few that are sluggishly awakening, and some that are actively growing. But it’s only certain plants from among the ranks of the sleeping and the just-starting-to-wake-up groups that get the late winter pruning treatment. As a general rule, dormancy, or “still pretty dormant” is the perfect state for many of these plants to be in when you take the axe to them. The following list of plants, and its corresponding info, is meant to be representational. There are plants that are morphologically and physiologically similar to each one of the plants I talk about here – some of these similar plants grow right here in my own garden along with the guys on this list – that also get March haircuts. I’ll try to reference a few of those as well, in terms of pruning suggestions and other relevant info.
Here you go…
The List: General Category by General Category
Before You Start Chopping
I’ve written about this a bunch of times before… You’ve got to sterilize the implement(s) you’ll be using to beat back your plants (pruners, baseball bats, whatever). I’m serious. I use really excellent, razor-sharp pruners of varying size and capability, and I disinfect them every single time I start cutting on my plants. I use a solution of 70% isopropyl alcohol applied to the cutting surfaces with a paper towel. I do this before pruning every single plant. When you finish with one plant, re-sterilize your blades before starting on the next one. It’s easy to bitch and moan about taking the time to do this, but believe me, it beats letting some parasite, disease, or fungal assassin cut down all of your plants for you. Seriously.
Bushes and Trees
Hydrangeas. I’ve got three types in my garden, and they all respond beautifully to late winter pruning: Panicled hydrangea (Hydrangea paniculata), smooth hydrangea (Hydrangea arborescens), and bigleaf hydrangea (Hydrangea macrophylla). The first two species, panicled hydrangea and smooth hydrangea, bloom on new wood. These can literally be cut almost flat to the ground in late winter (they’ll still bloom even if you don’t prune them, but not quite as profusely as they would after a good pruning). I cut mine to a height of about 20″-24″ in March (although anytime throughout the winter while they’re dormant is fine) before new leaf growth starts. By cutting the stems to this length, I allow them to get thicker and stronger at their bases every year. This is important because the flowers on these bushes – particularly smooth hydrangeas – can become enormous. When these giant blooms get rain-soaked, they can weigh the stems down to the point that the flowers themselves touch the ground. My advice with panicled and smooth hydrangeas is to cut them to 20″-24″ inches in late winter, while they’re still dormant. Remember, they bloom on new wood, so don’t wait until they start leafing out and shooting up new stems to cut them back. If you do, you’ll lose a ton of summer blooms. Bigleaf hydrangeas typically bloom on old wood only. There are however, varieties of bigleafs that belong to a group known as reblooming, or remontant hydrangeas. These plants bloom on both old and new wood. All of my bigleafs are from Bailey Nurseries’ Endless Summer® series. Every one of the plants from this series are remontant hydrangeas which do indeed bloom on both old and new wood. This ensures an essentially continuous supply of flowers all summer long. I prune mine back in late winter while they’re still dormant. I generally leave the dead/dried flowers in place over the winter for seasonal interest. When I prune them in March, I look for a spot along each stem just above a pair of dormant leaf nodes at the desired height (for me, this is about 20″) and make my cut there. I only prune my Endless Summer® bigleafs this dramatically every couple of years. They respond better, it seems, to a more dramatic pruning after they’ve grown big and wild for a couple of years.
As far as late winter pruning of old wood-only bigleaf bloomers is concerned, I’ve got one word for you: Don’t. If you do, you’ll get bushy green hydrangeas with no flowers on them for the coming summer.
Butterfly bush. Ornamental bushes that belong to the genus Buddleja (or Buddleia) respond beautifully to late winter pruning here in the Midwest. In fact, there are three really excellent reasons that late winter is absolutely the best time to prune these bushes. The first reason to cut these guys back in late winter has to do with the fact that their stems are hollow. If you prune them back in late fall, or throughout winter’s harshest months, you’ll run the risk of moisture entering the hollow centers of the stems, then freezing and damaging the plant. Leave the stems whole until the coldest winter months have passed, and prune later in the season. The second reason has to do with cut placement. When I prune my two butterfly bushes, I like to follow each stem back to its first, second, third, or fourth green nodes (depends on the appearance of each stem – ugly stems get the fourth node treatment), and make my cuts just above that point (although, since they bloom on new wood, you can cut these bushes down almost to the ground, though I never do). In order to see what’s green and what isn’t, you’ll need to wait until late winter. When you see a bit of greening going on, trace the stem back to your node of choice and make your cut. Finally, the third reason for cutting butterfly bushes back in late winter is the whole bloom-on-new-wood thing. If you wait too long to prune, and end up chopping off a bunch of new stems and foliage one warm spring day, you’re gonna lose some blooms that summer.
English lavender. Hardy English lavender (Lavandula angustifolia) is a shrubby, essentially evergreen bush, which, in my garden, can generally do with a trim in really late winter or early spring (even mid spring is good). If you grow this stuff, or are thinking about growing it, you’ll probably want to include some trimming in your itinerary – it gets kinda bushy and wild. When I prune my shrubs in late winter (or early spring), I typically trim only the very ends of growing stems, and I remove entirely dead, dry limbs/branches. Do not cut into the healthy, woody sections of leafed-out stems. If you do, you could damage the plant, or at the very least, you’ll prevent any new growth from emerging from the woody stem you just cut. Note: I only lightly prune my lavender shrubs in late winter/early spring, removing only dead stems and the tips of branches that are healthy and beginning to green up and grow. I do this to keep them from becoming wild and unkempt, and for promoting new, healthy growth, and unimpeded flowering. These plants do bloom on current year’s growth, so if you’re unsure about implementing your own pruning tactics, it’s sometimes best to wait until they’ve finished flowering before you try cutting on them. Please click here to read an excellent, detailed article about pruning lavender in any season by Jonathan Landsman on The Spruce.
Roses. I’ve written extensively about rose care here on The Renaissance Garden Guy before. You can click here to check out my article from a couple of years back about preparing roses for winter, and you can click this link to read about pruning and deadheading roses during their seasons of rejuvenation and growth. Both of these are practical, easy to understand articles. In fact, I’m going to directly quote from the second one right here because it contains a topic that’s entirely germane to the late winter pruning of plants here in the Midwest – rose bush hard pruning. The following quoted section from that article will tell you pretty much everything you’ll need to know about late winter rose bush pruning. There are a few instructional pics at the end of the quoted section, here. (And for an ever-growing collection of pics from my high-performing rose garden planting feature, please feel free to visit the “Roses” gallery.) Here’s the quoted article section:
“Hard Pruning Basics
- What is hard pruning? Hard pruning is a technique in which generally 1/3 to 3/4 of the bush’s stem structure is removed through pruning. For example, if the bush’s stem structures give it a height of 48″, hard pruning will reduce that height to between 32″ and 12″. I’ve really given some of my bushes buzz cuts, hard pruning them back by 3/4 of their pre-pruning heights, or even more, in some cases. (I told you I had balls.) Some of my bushes have gotten a lighter trim, where I’ve only taken them down by about 1/3 of their original heights. You’ll read about why some get buzzed, and others not so much, in my field notes a bit later.
- Why do it? This technique helps to eliminate tangled and intersecting/inter-crossing stems (stems growing across one another within the interior of the bush’s form), it allows for better light penetration and air circulation amidst each plant’s stems and foliage (by eliminating those intersecting/inter-crossing stems), it gets rid of dead main stems (you can cut those down right to the ground), it prevents a scraggly overall appearance, and it stimulates new, vibrant growth. By doing it, you can actually begin the process of guiding the overall burgeoning shape of your bush.
- When should you do it? At the very beginning of the growing season when your rose bushes begin to leaf out. (For me here in Zone 5B/6A, this typically happens in mid to late March.) As soon as you see new green leaves/shoots starting to emerge from the nodes on the bush’s main canes (stems), it’s time to hard prune. This emerging growth means that the plant’s moisture and nutrient delivery systems are awake and operational. With substantial lengths of stem removed, the bush’s roots can deliver all the moisture from the soil along shorter routes directly to the remaining nodes/shoots/leaves. And food derived from sunlight via the process of photosynthesis occurring at points of the emerging green structures will, in turn, nourish not only the bush’s roots, but the main stems, and those emerging green structures themselves. By executing your hard prune this early in the growing season, you’re giving each of your rose bushes a long period of time ahead to crank out new, healthy growth. By this time, each plant’s internal calendar recognizes that warmer days outnumber the freezing ones, and the emerging green growth will withstand some cold temperature dips. These plant’s can handle, and will certainly benefit from, a hard prune at this time.
- How often should you do it? Loaded question. It depends on a few things. If at the very beginning of the growing season, a bush’s stems are structurally sound and appealing in form (with no, or very few, tangled and inter-crossing/intersecting stems, and no, or very few, scraggly and straggling stems), you might want to just do a really light trim and skip the hard prune that year. Or if you’d given your bush a really, really hard prune the previous year (more than 3/4 removed), you might want to skip the hard prune, or at least do less of a hard prune – maybe just take 1/3 off, or, just give it a light trim that doesn’t qualify as a hard prune (removing less than 1/3 of the bush). I guess a really safe rule of thumb for me is as follows: Hard prune at least every other year, and, if necessary, every year. And adjust the “hardness” of that prune (1/3 off, 2/3 off, 3/4 or more off) based on the condition of each bush at the very beginning of the growing season.
- Where exactly on each stem do you make the cut? Once I know how much of the stem I want to remove, I look for a node (which may or may not already have a shoot emerging) close to where I want to cut, and I make that cut just a little bit higher up on the stem (within 1/4″ – 3/8″ above the node). When I make each cut within this distance above a node, the cut itself “scabs up” (forms a callus) really quickly, thereby protecting the stem, and simultaneously diverting nutrients and moisture to the node and any corresponding emerging growth.
- What should the cut itself look like? The cut should be made at a 45° angle to the stem. My folks showed me this in their gardens years ago. This angle should be used for any type of cut on any type of plant that you’d like to keep alive and healthy. The reason, according to my Dad: “The wound heals faster.” I’ll tell you what my actual observations have shown me in the field notes below.
- What kind of tool do you use to do a hard prune? Super sharp and powerful bypass pruners. You’ll see my recommendations below.”
As far as rose bushes are concerned, at least from my perspective, that’s the long and short of any late winter pruning you’ll be doing in the Midwest (or any regions around the world sporting similar climates).
Other bushes and trees. I’ve got other deciduous and evergreen bushes and trees growing in my garden. Dwarf cherry, bamboo, privet hedge, holly, Rose of Sharon, elderberry, spirea, lilac, clethra, rhododendron, azalea, and pieris all call my garden home. But only one gets a regular late winter trim. My clethra bush gets a little unruly over the summer, so I give it a very minor snipping every late winter for shape and attractiveness. I never prune my rhododendrons, azalalea, or pieris, and I almost never prune any of the others. When I prune the clethra (and any of the others that might get an extremely occasional snip), I’ll pick a spot on a branch just above a healthy node(s) and cut it there.
Herbaceous and Semi-evergreen Perennials
Garden phlox. Garden, or tall phlox (Phlox paniculata) can be cut back in fall or late winter, or not at all. I typically cut mine back in late fall, but extenuating circumstances prevented this from happening this past year. So late winter it is. Just follow the dead stems back as far down as you can and make your cut. (There’s usually evergreen, basal foliage present – don’t cut any of that.)
Shasta daisies. Like phlox, shasta daisies retain a clump of green basal foliage throughout the winter. I leave the old stems in place over the fall and winter, and prune them back to the level of the basal foliage in late winter, taking special care not to cut into that foliage.
Asters. Particularly, Stokes’ aster. Typically, you can cut asters down to about ten or twelve inches of height in the fall, and prune them down to their basal foliage in late winter. I do, however, treat my Mel’s Blue stokes’ asters (Stokesia laevis ‘Mel’s Blue’) just like my shasta daisies (they’re in the same family, Asteraceae) and engage in late winter only pruning for them. As with the shastas and phlox, cut any dead stems down to the basal, evergreen foliage. And as always, don’t damage this foliage.
Salvias. Salvias are an herbaceous perennial that love a late winter pruning here in the Midwest. It’s usually a good idea to leave the dead stems intact (or largely intact – about 12″ of stem) through the fall and coldest months of winter. This is because salvia stems, like those of the butterfly bush, are hollow, and pruning a particular plant too close to the ground in the fall could result in freezing moisture within its stems’ hollow centers damaging the plant’s root crown when winter hits its most extreme temperatures. In late winter, after the danger of extreme, sustained cold has passed, go ahead and prune your salvias down to within a few inches of the root crown.
At this point, I’ll relay an interesting factoid about a particular salvia which grows in my garden: the ‘Mystic Spires Blue’ salvia (Salvia x ‘Balsalmisp’). This particular cultivar is generally rated as being cold hardy to no lower than zone 7 (although I recently have seen a few nurseries rate it as being zone 6 capable). My zone is 5B/6A, but I knew I had to have this fabulous blue salvia the second I first laid eyes on it, the finer points of cold hardiness be damned. I have gotten this plant to survive my winters by pruning it to about 12″ in height in late fall, and adding several inches of mulch over its crown and lower stem sections. In mid March, I remove the extra mulch (leaving the original, ever-present level of mulch in place). During the very last days of winter, I’ll prune the 12″ long stems to within a few inches of the crown. This methodology works like a charm. The ‘Mystic Spires Blue’ comes back like a champ every year.
Update 1: Click here to read about how this plant’s luck had apparently run out.
Update 2: Take heart, and click here for another twist in the plot!
Late winter pruning in my Midwest garden: other perennials. I’ve got many more evergreen/semi-evergreen perennials than I’ve referenced here growing in my garden, but none of them really need any serious pruning to speak of in late winter. Any withered/dead foliage has either decomposed, or is harmless and irrelevant. Bushy evergreen hellebores can have any dead leaves removed in the late winter or any time in spring (I prune mine in spring). The same goes for pulmonaria, liriope, and lamiastrum. As far as herbaceous perennials go, the only other one I’ll prune back in late winter are Montauk daisies (although this past year, unrelated circumstances dictated that I cut them back almost to the ground in late fall – but I do typically wait until late winter). Waiting until late winter to prune Montauk daisies to within a few inches of the ground (do not cut into the plant’s woody crown when pruning it back) allows each plant’s dead and dried aerial structures to remain in place and protect its crown and roots throughout winter’s harshest months.
Vines and Climbers
Clematis. Late winter pruning in the Midwest is a hot topic when it comes to clematis vines – particularly, one of the two that I’ve got growing in my garden (I’ll explain why shortly). My clematis ‘Jackmanii’ (Clematis x jackmanii) and H.F. Young (Clematis ‘H.F. Young’) share a wrought iron (powder-coated steel, actually) arch in my garden. One grows up on one side, one grows up on the other. I’ve written several times about these vines (mine in particular, and, the genus as a whole) here on The Renaissance Garden Guy. In fact, right here, I’m going to quote directly from my 2021 article about pruning, pinching, and deadheading perennials, in which I outline my pruning methodology for my two vines. (Also, please feel free to click here to read my article about training clematis vines to climb, and here to read about the various mechanisms different climbing vines employ to make their particular ascents.) As far as clematis vines and their late winter pruning here in the Midwest are concerned, here’s the quote from my 2021 article:
“How and When to Prune Clematis. I’ve got two different types of Clematis vine growing in my garden. Each one is ambling up its respective side of a garden arch. One is a Clematis H.F. Young, and the other is a Clematis Jackmanii. (As a side note, these were planted as basically bareroots last fall. Each is now approximately 7 feet tall and the Jackmanii is covered with flowers.) For the illustrative purposes of this discussion, each of these vines happens to conveniently belong to a different repective group of Clematis, as I’ll explain below.
Clematis is a broad genus of flowering vine with approximately 300 different species. These plants flower and grow in different ways – specifically three different ways – and because of this fact, the subject of how and when a Clematis is pruned can be a bit convoluted. Some species flower on old wood (last season’s growth) only. Some species flower on both old and new wood (old wood and current season’s growth), and the third group of species flowers on new wood only. Consequently, these vines are pruned in three respectively different ways and times, and are organized accordingly into three separate groups, known as pruning groups. Pruning Group 1 consists of vines that flower on old wood only. They bloom in early through mid spring and should be pruned heavily after the flowers are spent. As plants in this group grow after they’ve finished flowering, they can be pruned back substantially at that time. This will result in new, vigorous growth. The flowers for the following year will be set on this growth. Pruning Group 2 consists of vines which flower on old and new wood. My H.F. Young vine belongs to this group. Vines in this group can be expected to flower in late spring through early summer, and then again, to a lesser degree, in the early fall. My vine has not experienced any flowering yet. I am attributing this to the fact that it is in it’s first year, and that this year’s growth will result in flowers next year. Because it flowers on old and new wood, a vine from this group should be pruned lightly in late winter, removing dead, weak, and snarled stems only. After it has flowered, it should be carefully pruned again, and deadheaded. Pruning Group 3 consists of vines that flower on new wood only. These bloom later in the summer and into fall. My Clematis Jackmanii belongs to this group, and oddly, has been blooming for almost two weeks now (it’s June 22nd as I write this), in apparent contradiction of this group’s documented period of flower production. But who’s complaining? In any event, the pruning methodology for vines in this group is simple. In late winter, cut the vine down to about eighteen inches in height. As this group flowers on new wood, the vigorous new growth that arises from pruning in late winter will produce great flowering for the summer.“
Okay. Got all that? Now here’s the hot clematis topic I referenced earlier. My H.F. Young, which normally flowers on old and new wood as a group 2 vine, has been cut all the way down to the ground. (The Jackmanii has received its usual late winter pruning to approximately 18″ in height – it’ll start shooting up new flower producing wood any minute now). Why did I cut my H.F. Young all the way down to the ground this late winter? Stem rot, aka Clematis Wilt afflicted my vine in the late summer. Stem rot is a nasty fungal disease that affects mostly large-flowered clematis vines fairly often. Typically, a swift response is in order – cutting the stems down to the ground, or even a bit below, as soon as the problem manifests itself will generally fix the problem (since the fungus that causes the problem does not affect the plant’s substantial root system). I did not act swiftly because I wasn’t convinced that the problem was indeed stem rot. I first tested the vine’s soil, and found it to be fine (clematis vines tend to like a slightly acidic soil with solid N-P-K ratios and good magnesium and iron content). For good measure, I dropped the pH a few ticks and added some excellent fertilizer in the form of an organic granular and a liquid seaweed high-iron root drench. When the plant did not respond, I removed the top portions of the stems so they wouldn’t come in contact with the Jackmanii vine growing up the other side of the arch. By this time, temperatures were starting to plummet (I believed that any fungal spores still hanging around would freeze solid), and I rolled the dice and decided to wait until late winter to cut the H.F. Young down to a level just below grade. And here we are. When I’d last checked the plant’s roots and crown toward the end of summer, they appeared healthy. I’m betting on this vine’s return. It’s one of my very favorite plants in my garden – it blooms and leafs out in incredibly profuse fashion, and it’s a huge component of that particular garden section’s spring and summer vibe. I’ll be absolutely devastated if it doesn’t pull through. But like I said, my money’s on the vine.
Note: Sometimes, things just don’t end well. Click here for an update on this vine’s fate.
Other vines and climbers. I’ve got two other types of climbing vines in my garden, but neither requires much in the way of late winter pruning. My goldflame honeysuckle and climbing hydrangea vines might get an obviously dead/withered/brown stem or two removed in March, but that’s about it. In spring and summer, if anything looks obviously dead on these vines, I’ll cut it off then. Both of these vines bloom on old wood, so I never prune healthy stems down.
Product Recommendations
What would an RGG article be without a few excellent product recs? Hey, the stuff I recommend here works perfectly for me. I wouldn’t recommend it if it didn’t.
Immediately below, you’ll find three links to three different types of Fiskars pruners. I’ve got six or seven different Fiskars pruning/cutting products. They are super-sharp (and they stay that way), incredibly powerful, totally reliable, and easy to see (that bright orange really sticks out when they’re laying in a pile of dirt). And their durability is legendary. They’re the only pruning and cutting implements I use. Click on any of the three #advertisement links directly below to learn more, or to order them right here, conveniently from Amazon.
I bought this Luster Leaf Rapitest 4-way soil analysis meter in February of 2022 and have used it successfully for over a year to test for soil fertility and pH levels. It also measures sunlight and soil moisture levels. It’s fast, easy to use, convenient, and accurate. By using this device, I’ve been able to determine the necessity of appropriate fertilizer applications and pH amending to the soil of a large number of the plants in my garden. You can learn more, or order it here, conveniently from Amazon, by clicking the #advertisement link. Note that this unit doesn’t test for iron levels in soil. Also note that I really love this little meter! (Featured right here is a 2-pack. It’s good to have a backup in case you step on one of them. Trust me, it happens.)
And That’s the Long and Short of It
Now you’ve got a handle on late winter pruning in the Midwest. Or at least late winter pruning in my Midwest garden. I realize that this list is fairly brief, and that it probably doesn’t contain the names of every plant you’ve got – or will have – growing in your own gardens. But I hope that the pruning info I provided on the plants I discussed at length here, and the others I referenced more briefly, gives you a decent basis for extrapolation and accurate inference-drawing as it pertains to other, similar plants you may already grow, or that you may decide to grow in the future.
Thanks for sticking around to the end. As always, dear readers and subscribers, I appreciate your very kind interest and readership.
Cheers, and Happy Gardening!
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Thank you for the awesome gardening tips.
I need to go out and look at the hydrangea. It was given to me last year by a friend. It had flowers on it of many colours – white – pink – blue and purple. I thought it was kind of unique.
I feel bad about having never pruned the clematis. It’s just been out there – growing for over 20 years – doing it’s ‘clematis’ thang.
Thank you for reading the article, Annie, and thank you for your kind comments. The hydrangea sounds beautiful. Many types of hydrangeas – particularly the bigleafs – will display bloom color in accordance with the pH levels present in their soil. The more acidic the soil, the “bluer” the blooms. It’s not uncommon for flower shades to vary on one bush. I wonder if that’s the case with yours, or if it’s a variety that blooms in different colors. It’s really interesting to hear about this one! As far as your clematis vine goes, if it’s a pruning group 1 or 2 vine, it’s absolutely fine to let it do its ‘clematis thang’ because group 1 vines bloom on old wood only, and group 2s bloom on old and new wood. In either case, if you don’t prune it, it’ll still bloom beautifully. Thanks again, Annie. As always, your kindness and your interest are dearly appreciated.
It started off with one clematis way back in 2000 or 2001. Then sometime later we got another clematis of a different colour. And then another and another – one of which was a white clematis. Now – when it blooms – the flowers bear no relation to what the flowers looked like from the original plant. Nor are they the same colour. The original plant had dark pink flowers [2000 or 2001]. Now the flowers are huge and a deep purple. I like purple.
With regards to the hydrangea. My friend next door halved his plant – put it in a large pot and gave it to me a year ago. He offered to dig a hole in the ground and plant it for me. But we live in a mobile park and almost all the plants here are in pots – even the Japanese maples – which I bonsai every few years [If you friend me on Facebook you will be able to see all my garden albums and you can see them. My oldest Japanese maple is 23 years + all the years it sat at the nursery before being able to be sold – and it is only about 6 feet tall].
My friend’s hydrangea is still a shade of blue. He was kinda stunned to see that when he halved the plant and moved it 30 feet to my yard that the flowers came out in all those colours – it’s just half of his original plant, after all. And when it was 30 feet away in His Yard – the flowers were all blue.
Fascinating. I do still wonder if the soil’s acidity (or lack thereof – many bigleafs bloom in lighter shades of pink in alkaline soil) is the key to your hydrangea’s color variation. Your clematis situation is fascinating and wonderful! I’m not well-versed in Facebook friending (I’ll try), but I did follow you on Twitter. In any case, I hope you’ll submit some pics of your garden for my RGG readers’ gardens feature in July (I’ll publish the invite with instructions right here on the site in May). And in the meantime, please feel free to share some pics on Facebook. I’d love to see your garden and your wondrous clematis vines and hydrangea bush!
Cool. I look forward to sharing photos of my very small garden for your July issue.
Glad you found DeadTurkeyTweet 🙂
Excellent! I’m looking forward to showing off your garden! I’m also very glad to follow @DTT on Twitter!
Another amazing article! Full of information and learning …. Your flowers looks so beautiful, the image of blooms on the Annabelle so enormous blows me away … The funny thing is I am no expert on gardening, actually I don’t know much…. Just learning from you, but I knew about the sanitizing of the cutting tools LOL
Thank you for sharing all this knowledge 🙏❤️🌺🌼
Thank you, Roxxy, for reading the article, and, of course, for your incredibly kind words. I’m really glad to know that you’re finding my content here to be helpful and informative. I think it’s great that you’ve known about the tool disinfecting part. Really, that’s probably the most important thing to know! Keep ’em clean, I always say! Thanks once again, Roxxy. I really appreciate it!
Great reading loaded with information and fun facts.
Thank you, Rick! I’m glad you enjoyed it – thank you for reading!
As always a great article loaded with information. One thing that I never thought of is to sanitize my cutting tools when using them. I never thought of doing it. It makes a lot of sense and I can see how it would be beneficial to my plants. I also want to compliment you on the photo gallery section. The pictures are really beautiful. The other new section, “Sights and Sounds,” is going to be terrific. Thanks for sharing everything with us.
Thank you so much, Kevin, for reading the article, and for your kind words. I truly appreciate it. The pruner sterilization thing really is a big deal. Plant pathogens can spread really easily if one isn’t careful. And thank you for your kind thoughts regarding the photo gallery and the upcoming “Sights and Sounds” page. I do believe both of these additions will be appealing to readers (and watchers and listeners). Thanks again, Kevin. Your interest and kindness are truly appreciated!.
Wow, you have given us so much information about pruning I can confidently start my pruning tomorrow!
Thank you so much for reading the article, Mary. I’m glad the information is useful. Rather than trying to compile a giant table with the names of (and pruning information about) every conceivable ornamental plant that can be pruned in late winter in this zone(s), I thought that providing some representatives from some of the major groups, along with some decent corresponding info, might be the best way to introduce this subject to readers. I’m really glad to hear that you found it comprehensible. Thanks once again!