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Rebekah Peeples's avatar

This is so so helpful!!! I confess that I didn't know hydrangeas actually needed pruning but this year I'll give it a shot. I'd also love your advice about taking care of pachysandra (or other ground covers) and helping it spread into bald spots.

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TheGardeningKind's avatar

Thank you. Well technically they don’t. But you just land up with progressively more leaf than flower. Thanks for the subject prod. I’ll add that to the list. For now, all I really do is dig up clumps in spring, divide them, and replant. The only trick is to know how particular plants naturally spread.

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Nikole Miles's avatar

This is great, thanks! I didn't know that pruning Annabelles all the way to the ground resulted in bigger flower heads - I just thought that was what I was supposed to do! I also didn't know that my blue ones didn't need to be cut back.

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TheGardeningKind's avatar

Thank you! Yep! That’ll do it. Harder prune for bigger blooms. But yes the mopheads can be left. It’s personal choice whether you want to tidy them up of they need some rejuvenation 👍

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Nikole Miles's avatar

The deer tend to do the initial pruning around here, so I think I'll just tidy 😊

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TheGardeningKind's avatar

😂

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Wendy McKane's avatar

Thanks! I wasn’t sure how exactly to prune my paniculatas. Now I know!

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