Bigleaf hydrangea Hydrangea macrophylla White - Hardy plant

What do I need?

• Watering can
• Plant food
• Cow fertiliser

These beautiful hydrangeas are perfect for every garden. The large flowers look wonderful in groups or in borders. For example, you can fill in a flower bed bordered by boxwoods with hydrangeas. They also look great in a group for a border or simply with other bigleaf hydrangeas! Common Hydrangeas in the garden

What do I need?

• Bucket
• Trowel
• Garden peat

Hydrangea macrophylla blooms on multi-year branches. Pruning is actually not necessary. If you really have to prune it, then do it straight after it has bloomed. This enables new branches to form in the same season, which will bloom the next year. You can give the shrub a fresh look by cutting away the oldest branches every two or three years. Remove dead branches completely. Flowers that have finished blooming can be carefully clipped in the winter, but always leave the topmost bud on the branch. Bigleaf hydrangea are very winter-hardy!

During dry periods, give hydrangeas extra water, because the shrub hates dry soil. Every winter or early spring, add a layer of compost mulch and garden fertiliser. The latest bigleaf hydrangeas (Hydrangea macrophylla) bloom on old and new growth. After pruning during the winter months, these plants produce new branches that will bloom within the same year. Pruning is actually not necessary, but desirable, if you prefer a low shrub. If you still have to prune, then this should be done immediately after the plant blooms. This allows for new branches to grow during the same season, which means new flowers for that year as well, but only if you are not too late.

You can freshen up the plant by cutting away the oldest part of the branches for two or three years in a row. Remove dead branches completely. You can clip wilted flowers carefully during the winter, but always leave the uppermost bud on the branch alone. For bigleaf hydrangeas, winter is not a problem!

The ball-shaped flower heads start off a greenish colour, gradually turning to its own colour, then turning back to green at the end of summer. The flowers stay on the plant for months. They still look lovely in the winter, especially when covered with a layer of frost or snow.
Hydrangea macrophylla is also known as the ‘common hydrangea’. In the old species the flower colour is determined by the pH levels in the soil. Among the newest species there are now types where this principle no longer applies.
In autumn the dead flower clusters can be dried and are great to use in a flower arrangement or autumn wreath to hang on your front door!