When Should I Prune My Hydrangeas? [Guide]

Hydrangeas are a summertime staple in the garden, with their large blooms in an array of white, pink, green, and blue hues taking center stage in the landscape. When maintaining these bodacious blooms, do you prune your hydrangeas in the spring? Fall? Not at all? The answer, as with many gardening questions, is it depends! Here, we'll talk about when to prune different types of hydrangeas so that you can plan your gardening tasks accordingly. Save our easy-to-follow guide below for easy access. 

For hydrangeas that bloom on new wood, flower buds are produced on new growth during the current year, so pruning is considered optimal in late winter or early spring before the new flower buds have formed to encourage more vigorous growth in the current year. To prune, cut back the plant to about 1/3 of its size, angling the pruners about 45-degrees above a visible bud on each stem. Hydrangeas that bloom on new wood include panicle hydrangea (Hydrangea paniculata) and smooth hydrangea (Hydrangea arborescens or 'Annabelle' hydrangea). 

Old wood hydrangeas create their flower buds for the following year right when they finish blooming in the current year, so you're at risk of cutting off future flowers if you prune these shrubs after they've set new flower buds. We recommend that you skip pruning your old wood hydrangeas entirely. Keep any trimming to a minimum, except for removing dead or diseased branches. If you can't resist shaping your shrubs, you can lightly trim them immediately after flowering before any new flower buds are set for the next season. Old wood hydrangeas include bigleaf hydrangeas (Hydrangea macrophylla), mountain hydrangeas (Hydrangea serrata), oakleaf hydrangeas (Hydrangea quercifolia), cascade hydrangeas (Hydrangea x), and climbing hydrangeas (Hydrangea petiolaris).