Hydrangeas are a beautiful flower to have in almost any garden, having so many varieties and colors to choose from! So it’s frustrating when you find your hydrangeas not blooming.
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There are a few reasons why your hydrangeas aren’t blooming, and unfortunately sometimes there’s nothing you can do to help it bloom this season. But there are also easy things to check for before you get too discouraged!
Related: Do Deer Eat Hydrangeas? & Are Hydrangeas Poisonous?
It’s Too Early In The Season
This is the most simple explanation for why your hydrangeas might not be blooming yet. There are so many different varieties of hydrangeas, and they all bloom at a slightly different time in the season. It may just be too early in the season.
Some don’t bloom until mid summer, so it may just be too early for the flowers to bloom on your hydrangea! Check your variety and see if they just have a late bloom season. More likely they are to bloom well into fall, depending on your climate.
You may also be interested in: Do all plants flower?
There Was A Late Frost
Another reason hydrangeas not blooming could be because of a late frost well into spring. Like many flowering plants, a late frost can be detrimental for blooms.
If a frost occurs when the flower buds are starting to grow, they are going to freeze and won’t be able to bloom that season. You may just have to wait until the next season for the hydrangea to bloom.
To prevent this from occurring in the future, check the weather to see if the temperature is going to dip late at night after the buds are starting to grow on the plant. If so, gently cover the plant with a spare sheet or a drop cloth to protect the plant. Remove this cover when the temperature warms up the following day.
Protecting the plant is only important once buds start to appear. In the winter, the plant will be in a dormant stage and will be fine with the cold weather.
Pruning at the Wrong Season
The third reason for hydrangeas not blooming may occur is because you pruned at the wrong season. You may have pruned it too late in the season, not allowing it enough time to grow.
This depends on your type of hydrangea, big leaf (like the mophead) prefer to be pruned after their blooming period, whereas smooth prefer to be pruned late winter/ early spring, and some don’t necessarily even need to be pruned!
For following years, check what type of hydrangea you have and determine when you need to prune it!
Unfortunately, if you did prune your hydrangea at the wrong timing, there isn’t much you can do to get it to bloom this growing season, other than hope and wait for a late bloom as they can flower even into autumn.
Not Enough Sunlight
Again this one depends on the hydrangea variety, but typically hydrangeas love the right amount of sunlight, but not the heat. Look for a sunny morning spot for your hydrangea to grow in, or you might have to move this flowering plant to somewhere else in your garden.
Some hydrangeas will still bloom while in shade, but not probably to the amount you’re hoping for if it’s fully shaded throughout the day.
A general rule of thumb (remember this varies based on type) is to look for a location that gets about 6 hours of sun a day, and some shade in the middle of summer.
Some hydrangea varieties do better in partial shade than others as well.
Thinking about moving your hydrangea to somewhere with better sun conditions? Read how to transplant your hydrangea!
Wrong Fertilizer
There are 3 main fertilizer types, including nitrogen, phosphorous, and potassium. Hydrangeas thrive with phosphorous, but fail with excess nitrogen. So it’s important to know what plants need so you don’t accidentally give them what they don’t want.
Keeping this in mind, it’s important to know that grass loves nitrogen, so if you’re growing your hydrangea right next to grass that may be causing the problem for why your hydrangeas aren’t blooming.
Luckily, you can test for this at home, and this can be an easy thing to fix to get your hydrangeas flowering!
Keeping these 5 reasons in mind for why your hydrangeas not blooming when choosing where to plant or what to change for the next year!
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