I’ve been learning a lot about caring for hydrangea plants in anticipation of the turn of seasons from summer to fall. It turns out there are many different varieties and their care differs, depending on which type of plants you have. The variety growing in our yard is named Seaside Serenade Bar Harbor Hydrangea.

Our hydrangea are planted at the front of what will someday be our fully grown Laurel hedge and bordering the house. When they started blooming, and for most of the summer, the blooms were bright white but have now turned green. (Since this is the first season with the plants, I haven’t seen how they fully change in fall and winter). I look forward to seeing how they change!

Hydrangeas should be pruned each year for best growth. The biggest difference in how the different varieties are treated when it comes to pruning and winterizing, comes down to whether they like to be pruned in the fall, with their old growth (referred to as old wood) or pruned in the spring when the new growth appears (referred to as new wood). With the Seaside Serenade Bar Harbor variety, they like to be pruned in the spring, on the “new wood” right when they new buds appear. Once the new buds appear, I will clip just above each new bud. By doing this, it will promote growth and blooms.

If you have hydrangea plants and aren’t sure what variety they are, you might have some luck using the google images app on your smartphone to identify your plants. (It’s also a favorite way for me to identify unknown plants when I’m out and about).

To be honest, I really like to tidy things up in the fall and am not too excited about the dried blooms sitting on the plants through the winter and peeking out through the snow. But, I want to see how it goes this first season. (If the dried blooms drive me crazy this winter, I might experiment next fall with just clipping off the dried blooms heading into winter, to make the plants more tidy, and then will fully prune in the spring as recommended. By then, the plants will be fully established and strong, so we’ll see!

Note: All of our landscaping was done by Legacy Landscapes in Spokane, Washington.