If there is no Hydrangea arborescens on your site, then this can be considered an omission. Rarely any plant combines the same high decorative, unpretentiousness and good winter hardiness. This kind of hydrangeas requires little, but gives its full bloom, creating a grand garden view. To maintain the beauty of the bushes, pruning is necessary. Let’s figure out how to conduct it.
Rejuvenating pruning
If the hydrangea tree is not rejuvenated, then after a while you will have an aged large poorly flowering bush. The first rejuvenation strategy is to cut off all shoots at ground level every 7-8 years. If you are sorry to do this, and you do not want to stay for one season without flowers, then you can stretch the rejuvenation for three years. To do this, you will need to cut out the oldest branches every year, and thus the plant will gradually be renewed.
Formative pruning
It must be done every year. The best flowering of the tree hydrangea happens on last year’s shoots and on zero (grown in the current season). The largest inflorescences are formed on them, affecting the whole district. Shoots older than 3 years, as a rule, bloom less often and mostly create a green background. If they are not cleaned, they will give the bush a sloppy, “shaggy” look.
Sanitary pruning
It is worth removing ugly, broken shoots throughout the season. If you carried out pruning in the fall, and in the spring, after the snowfall, you found branches affected by winter, then they need to be removed. Even if you see that your hydrangea has only a couple of shoots, do not worry: this culture is recovering perfectly.
All of the above is theory, general requirements that need to be clearly known. In practice, it is important to take into account the region in which your garden is located. It depends on when (in spring or autumn) it is better to prune Hydrangea arborescens and how much to shorten the shoots. There is a difference in the formation of young and old bushes.