Cut back your panicle hydrangeas in the late fall or early winter for the best blooms next year. These hydrangeas produce large, cone-shaped flower clusters that are popular in floral arrangements and can also be used as dried decorations.

TRANSCRIPT

Hello, we are going to talk about cutting back panicle hydrangeas. Now this is a limelight variety. It's one of my favorites because of its height and its long sturdy stems. For those of you who are looking at hydrangeas, this is great if you live in western New York. They don't flop over in the rain and they have a super long bloom period.

There's a lot of different varieties that come in different sizes, but this limelight is going to get about 8 to 12 feet tall. So be really careful when you're picking out the right size plant for your landscape. Now, when it comes to pruning, I like to cut mine back in the late fall. I know there's a lot of information out there and it does vary from variety to variety.

That being said, I've always cut these back in the late fall without a problem. Now, you can always cut them back by a third. That's usually what I do for most hydrangeas, but in this circumstance, I want these to get super tall. I'm trying to create a screen here, so I'm going to cut off with my pruners, just beneath the stems here, finding the next bud point, and that's how I'm going to prune them back.

Now, I know a lot of people just leave these flower heads on all winter long for some winter interest, and that's totally fine. Just be really careful when you're pruning them back in the spring. Um, do not be aggressive, okay, because you could, if you cut down too low, you're potentially cutting off that year's blooms, which we don't want.

Will it kill the plant? No, but we want those beautiful flowers that hydrangeas are famous for. So, just be very, very careful if you choose to cut these back in the spring, as little cut back as possible.