Hydrangea is one of the most beautiful ornamental shrubs that you can plant in your garden. Novice gardeners often start this plant. Today, one of the most frequently asked questions regarding this flower is this: how to harbor hydrangeas for the winter and why is this even necessary? It must be remembered that these plants can be of different types. It is depending on this that hydrangea shelter is made for the winter. The most demanding of this procedure is a large garden leaf variety. The hydrangea panicle and tree-like are most in need of shelter. Usually, all these species grow on the gardener's site, and each one needs a special approach.
How to hide hydrangea for the winter
First of all, you should understand how to carry out this procedure with large leaf hydrangea. It must be remembered that pruning this plant is extremely undesirable, otherwise the next year the unlucky gardener can get an ordinary ugly shrub completely without flowers. This is due to the fact that hydrangea peduncles are located on the tops of shoots and begin to bloom only in the second year. Cutting them, the gardener destroys the buds and deprives the plant of any opportunity to bloom. In addition, you should adhere to a certain technology that explains how to harbor hydrangeas for the winter. If you follow the instructions below, then next year the plant will continue to delight its owner with lush and very beautiful inflorescences:
- In mid-autumn (late October or early November), you should very carefully dig the earth around hydrangea.
- It is recommended to mulch the bush and directly the roots of the plant. A mixture of straw and sawdust is best suited for this, which will provide hydrangeas with the necessary heat and oxygen access. In addition, by spring, the mulch will turn into a nutrient layer that will help the plant come to life after the cold.
- The base of the branches can be insulated by bombarding them with peat.
- It is necessary to put several branches of a tree on the bush of a plant, pressing them to the ground. In winter, these branches will take on the bulk of the ice and snow and save the hydrangea branches from breaks. This is incredibly important for keeping kidneys intact.
How to prepare hydrangea for winter
Panicled varieties of this plant are prepared for the cold in a slightly different way. They are sheltered in the following way:
- Directly in the center of the bush, a small hill of a mixture consisting of apple leaves and conifer needles is poured.
- From above it is all pressed down by several dry branches of any tree. This approach will protect the plant from the severity of snow and will not allow young shoots to break.
- Among other things, the shoots are usually pruned so that there are three buds left on each of them. This should be done when the juice ceased to circulate in the plant. Otherwise, it will continue to flow until the death of the entire escape.
Now we know how to harbor hydrangeas for the winter. It remains only to say a few words about the tree variety of this plant. How to harbor hydrangeas for the winter, if they are of this kind? Doing this is completely optional. Experienced gardeners are limited to a few shovels of land that rush to the base of the bush during the autumn digging of the garden.