Endless Summer Hydrangea Trimming

Betty in Jackson has a question, “I have ventured into a new area with hydrangeas this year and I have what is called an Endless

Summer and it has about eight beautiful blooms on it. But now they have died off, can I cut these flowers off so new ones will come on? And right now it’s in a pot, would you recommend that in the fall I put it in the ground?”

You can trim those old bloom heads off if you want, once they’re done blooming we put them through a trim cycle. It’s also the time where you can reshape the plant if you have any of the branches that have gone too far one direction or another. 

If it’s gotten too tall, you can trim it and then fertilize it. It’s really really important after you trim the bloom heads off or trim the plant itself to give it a good drink of the water soluble fertilizer. I like one called Jack’s blossom booster. That is going to help increase the likelihood of its reblooming and Endless Summers are supposed to rebloom all summer long.

Now there is a a downtime at once it’s done blooming to when it starts blooming again, but by fertilizing with that Jack’s Blossom Booster, you’re gonna shorten that time. It may only be seven to ten days to two weeks before the new blooms set and you have flowers again for another month.

You can keep it in the pot throughout the growing season, but I would recommend planting that in the fall and wherever you plant it, ideally the best environment for that plant is morning sun and afternoon shade. They like a little bit of shade in the afternoon when the sun’s blazing hot, but it does need sun to produce flowers. So morning sun’s the best place to put that plant.

There is a fertilizer that you can use in the fall when you go to plant it in the ground in the fall. It’s called triple super phosphate and it’s actually designed just to make the root system grow and to make it bloom again next year. So by using that specific fertilizer in the fall, you’re gonna help the plant root in really good and it’s gonna store energy to make it bloom better the next year. 

Definitely water it really well. That’s the other nice thing about the Jack’s Blossom Booster, those plants require a lot of water to set a good bloom. But when you’re using that fertilizer you have to use water, so it’s kind of like double duo action.

Questions? Email us at [email protected] or call one of our two locations: Portage (330-499-0101) or Everhard (330-492-1243).