How to cover a hydrangea for the winter

Professional landscape designers and hobby gardeners alike love hydrangea. Beautiful bushes with large multi-colored inflorescences will adorn any garden. Many consider this plant to be too capricious, but the secret of lush flowering lies only in the correct care of the plant, which will not take much of your time if you have the necessary information and act in the right direction. Hydrangeas are not frost-resistant, so they must be properly prepared for the winter period and provide the plants with additional shelter that will protect them from frost. Consider whether and how to cover your hydrangea.

How to prepare a plant for wintering

For hydrangea, preparation for winter must be started in advance. This does not mean at all that you need to wrap it up with the onset of autumn, on the contrary, it will be necessary to cancel or reduce some of the procedures for caring for the plant.

• Starting in the middle of summer, nitrogen should be excluded from the dressing. This element contributes to the growth of shoots, therefore, if you continue to feed nitrogen, then the young branches will not have time to get stronger before frost and may suffer. Therefore, in August and September, feed the hydrangea only with phosphorus and potassium fertilizers.
• From the second half of September, you can stop watering the hydrangea. Yes, this plant is very fond of moisture, but in autumn there is a lot of rainfall and this will be enough for the root system of the hydrangea. If autumn is excessively rainy, then it is recommended to build a canopy over the hydrangea to prevent waterlogging of the soil. Both lack and excess of moisture can lead to freezing of the plant in winter.
• Collect any fallen leaves and other plant debris under the hydrangea bushes and burn. If you have a large-leaved hydrangea growing, then at the beginning of autumn it is necessary to remove the foliage from the lower part of the bush, this will accelerate the lignification of the branches and increase their resistance to frost.
• Experts advise pruning hydrangeas in the spring, so in the fall it is necessary to inspect the plant and remove only broken or dried branches. Do not forget that garden tools must be very sharp and clean, and the cuts must be treated with garden varnish so that they do not get infected.
• The question often arises whether it is necessary to cut off dried inflorescences. Some people like how dry flower caps look under the snow, so if your hydrangea variety does not need complete shelter (that is, it blooms annually on young shoots), then the inflorescences do not need to be cut off. In the large-leaved and tree-like hydrangea, as well as in the Sargent hydrangea, which are to be completely wrapped up for the winter, all inflorescences must be cut off before the onset of frost.

Do I need to cover the hydrangea in winter

In the first two to three years after planting, any type of hydrangea needs shelter. The young plant has not yet developed a sufficiently powerful root system and is still unable to fully resist unfavorable weather conditions. After the shrub gets stronger, some varieties do not need to be covered.

But those types of hydrangeas that form inflorescences on the shoots of the second year must be wrapped up if you expect to admire their flowering annually. These types include large-leaved hydrangea, tree-like hydrangea and Sargent hydrangea.

How to cover a hydrangea

Remember, you are insulating the hydrangea so that the frost does not damage the top of the shoots, and this will require bending the branches to the ground, as is done with the vine.To make the branches of the shrub more flexible, in the spring they are sprayed with a weak solution of potassium permanganate. If it is not possible to bend the shoots to the ground, then it is recommended to collect them in a bunch and build a vertical shelter.

When choosing the most suitable time for a hydrangea shelter, be guided by the weather forecast. Already in the second half of October (or earlier), when the first frosts are expected, mulch the soil of the trunk circle and wrap the shoots, leaving a small hole for ventilation (with the onset of stable cold weather, it should be closed). If possible, ventilate the shelters during thaws.

How to cover a hydrangea? Opinions differ here, but nevertheless, most experts recommend abandoning the plastic film, since hydrangea saturated with moisture in the autumn period under the film can begin to vomit. The best option would be to use geotextiles, burlap, old unnecessary jackets or blankets. And the inner space of the shelter can be filled with dry fallen leaves, sawdust, coniferous litter or spruce branches.

Harboring young hydrangeasthat you planted in the current or last year, it will be enough to spud the soil around the bush, mulch it with peat or compost, and cover it with a large layer of dry foliage. As we said above, in the early years, shelter is required for any variety of hydrangea, regardless of its frost resistance, declared in the description of the variety.

Tree hydrangea has the ability to recover, even if it is caught by a frost, and begins to grow again. But for high-quality flowering, it is still better to cover the plant. First, you should huddle the base of the bush, then mulch the soil. It will be quite problematic to press the branches of a tree hydrangea to the ground, so they are collected and tied to a support, they are wrapped around with spruce branches, and over the spruce branches they are wrapped with geotextile or burlap.

By the same principle, they are insulated for the winter period and hydrangea sargent: they sprinkle the bush, sprinkling its base with dry earth, then lay the mulch (foliage, spruce branches). The last step is to warm the crown. You can wrap the branches with thick paper or geotextiles, or place a box of a suitable size over the hydrangea. The interior of the shelter can be filled with dry foliage.

Large-leaved hydrangea is one of the most popular types, but at the same time the most difficult to prepare for the winter period. This is the least frost-resistant hydrangea, it can be damaged not only by winter frosts, but also by autumn drops in temperature, and spring return frosts. If you have ever been involved in growing grapes, then you probably had to bend and cover the vine for the winter. So, the shelter of a large-leaved hydrangea is done according to the same principle.

• Trim the hydrangea inflorescences and foliage, collect the branches into one bunch and gently bend them onto the pre-laid boards. Secure the branches with staples or ropes. It is important not to inflict mechanical damage on them, but at the same time fix it securely enough.
• After fixing the hydrangea on the boards, start filling it with one of the materials prepared in advance: dry earth, fallen dry leaves, sawdust. You can pre-cover the branches with geotextiles, and only then pour in an insulating layer, so an additional air gap is formed, which means that the number of protective layers will increase.
• After the insulating layer, it is necessary to cover everything with geotextile and fix it well around the perimeter, leaving a couple of holes for air circulation. You can additionally lay spruce branches on top if the winter is not very snowy. If there is a lot of snow, then you can throw an additional snowdrift on top of the hydrangea shelter, so it will definitely not freeze.

And here are some more options for sheltering a large-leaved hydrangea using various materials.

1. Around the hydrangea branches collected in a bunch, you need to wrap a roofing material to make a cylinder. The branches should not touch the roofing material, it is imperative to leave a gap of at least ten centimeters, and the height of the cylinder should be about 50 cm larger than the bush. Fix the edges of the cylinder so that it does not unwind, fill the inner space with dry foliage. When snowfalls begin and frosts come, the upper hole must be closed with geotextiles.
2. Place some stable pegs around the bush and stretch geotextiles in several layers. As in the previous version, fill the inner space with foliage, then tighten the geotextile and the "roof" of the shelter.
3. Spruce branches provide warmth very well. After hilling the bush, lay the spruce branches on the ground, then bend the hydrangea, secure it and lay a thick layer of spruce branches on top again. From above, you can cover everything with geotextiles and fix it.

When and how to unravel the hydrangea

It is very important to cover the hydrangea in a quality and timely manner, but it is equally important to know when and how to clean this shelter. You can't do it right away, you need to disassemble the structure gradually. Do not forget that melted snow and bright spring sun do not guarantee the final onset of warm weather, night frosts can return at any time.

First, you need to remove the top layer of geotextile for the daytime, if necessary, returning it to its original place at night. The leaves with which you covered the hydrangea need to be agitated so that they are dry. They should be removed only after the first buds appear on the hydrangea. Last of all, they remove the soil with which you spud the base of the bush. But no matter how warm the weather is during the daytime, continue to follow the weather forecast - if night frosts are expected, then it is better to play it safe and cover the hydrangea at night with geotextiles or burlap.