Large-leaved hydrangea: preparation for winter and pruning. Shelter for the winter of large-leaved hydrangea. How to properly cover a hydrangea for the winter: detailed tips and tricks
Gardeners and landscapers appreciate the hydrangea bush because of its beautiful and large flowers. The size and quality of flowers depends on how well the plant is cared for. The main guarantee of their formation is the proper protection of their kidneys in winter.
How to prepare for winter
Preparing for winter is the key not only to the beautiful flowering of hydrangea, but also to its survival in general. The first step is to cut everything lower leaves from escapes. This will help them stiffen up, making the underside of the bush more resistant to cold. It is important to exclude before winter nitrogen fertilizers, start adding under the rhizome of the plant leaf humus. Will benefit from potash and phosphorus bait. Each variety of plant has its own characteristics when sheltering for the winter. 
Tree hydrangeas do not need much shelter. They perfectly tolerate even the most severe cold. This is due to the fact that this variety has a tall, strong and completely stiff trunk. It gives her the ability to resist frost and quickly recover from them. IN winter period it is only recommended to cut the leaves of the tree-like bush, and the inflorescences can be left to decorate the winter garden. Hydrangea Sargent and large-leaved need careful shelter for the winter. In order for them to survive the winter, you need to have time to completely insulate them before the arrival of the first frost. After cutting off all the foliage and inflorescences, the shoots of the plant should be lowered to the ground and tied to a well-fixed peg. Next, you need to cover the rhizome and trunks with foliage, earth, wrap them with non-woven material with holes. Such actions will help keep the plant warm and ensure its beautiful flowering from early spring to late summer.
Did you know?In science, hydrangea is called "hydrangea", which literally translates as "a vessel with water."
When to Cover
The preparation of the bush for wintering should begin long before the arrival of cold weather. The best month to start the whole process is September. By this time, the plants will already have faded and will begin to shed their foliage. During October, it is advisable to completely cover them in order to protect flower buds from low temperatures. When the thermometer is below 0 ° C, the delicate ovaries of flowers are at great risk. Although the plant itself is able to survive at temperatures of -25 ... -35 ° C, in the absence of shelter in such a cold, there will definitely not be inflorescences in spring. 
Shelter of the young
Young bushes are especially sensitive to cold weather, as they have not yet fully matured. To provide them with coziness and comfort, conditions should be created where sudden temperature changes will not be felt, snow will not fall. First thing young plant need to be protected with a lot of dry leaves.
Important! Under the coating should not penetrate cold air or create a draft.
This will help keep the heat at the base of the bush. Next, you need to throw a film or other on the hydrangea nonwoven fabric cut small holes in it. It must be fixed and firmly pressed to the ground so that the wind does not carry it away. For more reliable protection from snow, you can create a small dome or cellophane roof over a young plant.
Paniculata shelter
Paniculate or pink hydrangea is quite frost-resistant. It withstands frosts down to -35 ° C in the absence of strong winds. This species in our latitudes requires minimal shelter for the winter. The best option is to hill the beginning of the shoots with a mixture of leaves, soil and peat. If your site is often windy, then it is better to tilt the branches to the ground and fix. This will provide protection from the wind and save more heat.
Video: panicle hydrangea shelter for the winter
Important!Up to two years, even panicled hydrangeas need to be wrapped with non-woven material with fixation of bent shoots near the ground.
Shelter large-leaved
Large-leaved hydrangea is most whimsical when we are talking about shelter for the winter. The inflorescences of this plant are large, beautiful and very fragile. To save them during the cold weather, you need to warm the shrub as much as possible. First you need to clean it from all the leaves, cut off the dried inflorescences. Next, insulate the rhizome with a mixture of soil and peat, and then lower the shoots to the ground and fix. Then it is necessary to cover the plant with non-woven material, subsequently pressing it tightly to the ground. Sometimes snow can be poured on top for a better effect.
Video: large-leaved hydrangea shelter for the winter
Shelter tree
Tree hydrangea is a wonderful attribute of any garden. It is unpretentious and easily tolerates frosts down to -30 ° C. The difference of this variety from others is that it has a thicker trunk covered with rough bark. The shoots are much higher than those of the paniculate and large-leaved. In order to tree hydrangea safely survived the winter and bloomed in the spring, you need to properly cover it.
Did you know? Hydrangeas are unique in that they accumulate aluminum from acidic soil. Thanks to this ability, some species acquire a blue color inflorescences.
How exactly to do this depends on the weather and temperature features. If the temperature in winter does not fall below -15 ... -20 ° C, then the plant can only be covered with earth and leaves. If you often observe cold winds and temperatures below the mentioned range in the area, you should completely cover the bush. Namely: insulate the base of the trunk with leaves, peat and earth, bend the shoots to the ground, cover the hydrangea with non-woven material.
Video: how to properly cover a tree hydrangea for the winter
Shelter methods
In order to shelter plants for the winter, there are many ways. Regarding hydrangeas, the most effective and suitable are sheltering with spruce branches and fixing bent shoots near the ground. They are the ones who provide the most better protection plants from external threats in winter. Lapnik, or spruce forest - fluffy, green fir branches. They are great for warming hydrangeas, as they retain heat well and protect.
They are used as flooring on the base non-woven material. The spruce branches are folded on top in a small layer to strengthen the structure and protect the plant from the oppression of snow. Fixing bent shoots to the ground is also a great way to protect the plant from wind and frost. It is often combined with spruce branches to provide maximum comfort for the hydrangea. This method consists in lowering the shoots of the bush to the ground. This must be done gradually so that the plant gets used to this position and does not break. It is best to use a plank with nails or pegs to tie branches to them. Hydrangea is an adornment of any flower bed. And in order for it to bloom more magnificently and brighter, you need to warm it well in winter. Through simple but important steps, you can grow a bush that will delight you. bright colors throughout the warm season.All the guests of our garden certainly admire my large-leaved hydrangeas and people often ask how I manage to achieve this luxurious flowering. My main secret- this is the right winter.
I grew up in the south, where hydrangeas overwinter without any shelter. Therefore, it turned out to be an unpleasant surprise for me that in the Moscow region to grow large lush flowering bushes not so easy. After all, these plants lay flower buds closer to autumn at the ends of the shoots, and if they freeze out in winter, then the bush will no longer bloom next season. Therefore, hydrangeas must be protected from frost.
No matter how I tried! She built shelters from film and roofing material, stretched non-woven covering material along arcs. I tried to cover it with leaves, and I brought oak trees from the forest with special bags - unlike birch trees, they do not rot. But the result was still not pleasing: most of the flower buds died. In the end, I did develop a technique that helps me keep them intact.
Stage 1
I'm getting down to business on the eve of nighttime autumn frosts. First, I cut off all the leaves from the bushes. If you cover hydrangeas directly with foliage, it will begin to rot, and because of this, the shoots themselves may suffer. I leave only flower buds at the ends of the branches, in extreme cases - two small leaves that protect them.
Stage 2
After the foliage is cut, I tie the shoots together in several pieces. Large bundles should not be made - they will be difficult to bend down. It is quite enough to pull the branches 3-4. At the same time, I do not use a rope, but old unnecessary tights and stockings: they make soft elastic ties that do not injure the plant.
At the next stage, the hydrangeas must be bent as low as possible to the ground. With some varieties, this can be done without difficulty, but for others, the shoots may turn out to be too lignified, and you will have to bend down in several stages: at first slightly, then more and more, closer to the ground. To fix the branches in this position, I use metal hooks. They can be made from welding electrodes, which are sold in hardware stores, or simply bought ready-made - they are in garden centers. In general, bending a hydrangea is not difficult: just pass the hook to the eyeballs, as if into a loop, and stick it as deep as possible into the ground.
Stage 3
When the hydrangea is laid, you can simply cover it with non-woven material for a while - after all severe frosts in early autumn, as a rule, does not happen. But on the eve of cold weather, I take off the “non-woven fabric” and fill the plants with either dry peat or light earth. I sprinkle the base of the bush lightly: the lignified bases of the shoots are not as sensitive to frost as the tender tips. Then I put arcs over the bush and again stretch the non-woven covering material, and on top of it - the film, but so that it does not cover the ends (I do this so that precipitation does not create high humidity in the shelter). In this form, my hydrangeas go into the winter.In the spring, I first remove the film and non-woven material, rake the ground, and then again put the “non-woven fabric” on the arcs and leave such a lightweight shelter until it finally gets warmer.
Often gardeners-dacha residents do not want to limit themselves to plants adapted to the local climate and which require much less attention than heat-loving "southerners". always cause admiration and I want to see them in my flower bed without fail. This is possible only if the conditions familiar to them are created for these cultures.
The captivating hydrangea was no exception. To admire her abundant flowering summer and autumn, you need to take care of proper preparation to winter, and protect the plant from the effects of many adverse factors.
Since the plant is quite thermophilic, the thicker the shelter for it, the better. The attractiveness of the hydrangea is that it is not threatened with decay, no matter how it is wrapped up, therefore, any materials can be used for insulation, even those that do not allow air to pass through.
Most of all, the tops of the shoots and the flower buds located at their ends are subject to freezing, which means that the hydrangea should be covered until frosty days come. Since the powerful shoots of the plant are quite high, different methods of shelter are used.
Ways to shelter hydrangeas for the winter
In addition to the fact that hydrangea bushes are tall, they are also sprawling, so its branches are tied with a rope or wire. Then they take a roofing material of sufficient length to wrap it around the plant and fix it securely. It is not necessary to tightly wrap and squeeze the bush - between it and the walls of the roofing material should be left free space 10 cm. At the top, the roofing material should be half a meter above the hydrangea bush. Then fallen leaves are poured into this “cylinder”, evenly distributing it.
If the bush is low, it can overwinter under an impressive snow cover of 70-90 cm without any shelter, but such an abundance of snow is rare. It will also require certain preparatory work- you will need to bend the branches to the ground.
1 inclined shoots, 2 hilling, 3 spruce branches, 4 lutrasil, 5 stone
Lapnik is also perfect as a covering material. The bush is first piled up, spruce branches are laid out near it, a hydrangea is carefully bent over it and a hydrangea is laid, on top of which another layer of spruce branches is placed. This "construction" must be covered with any material: lutrasil, polyethylene, etc., pressing stones along the edges.
Hydrangea covered with spruce branches
You can do without spruce branches, repeatedly covering with covering material a pre-installed frame made of wooden slats or wire.
Before carrying out "covering" work, all the leaves are cut off from the hydrangea, leaving only the apical ones, and earth is poured into the base of the bush. Whatever the type of insulation, holes are needed in it to carry out ventilation, but with a steady cooling they are closed. All through the winter further care consists in adding snow to a sheltered bush, and only with spring warming will it again be necessary to resume ventilation.
How to revive hydrangea after winter
When the hydrangea wintered “correctly”, it will certainly please its caring owner with bright green leaves and magnificent flowering. But what if the flower was left for the winter without shelter at all?
It is already possible to achieve an ideal look from him, since the cold has done its job - the plant, if it survived, is very weak, vulnerable and most susceptible to infection by diseases and pest attacks. These troubles will be indicated by blackening and spots on the leaves.
What measures can and should be taken in such cases? From fungal diseases, treatment with copper preparations or Bordeaux mixture 1% concentration. It is better to remove severely affected foliage and re-treat the plant after 2-3 weeks. For prevention, you can use biological means(for example, phytosporin), with a regularity of 1 time in 2-3 weeks, but only 3 weeks after treatment with chemicals.
Pests are afraid of insecticides, careful spraying of the drug will get rid of most of their representatives. The depressed state of the flower can also cause an excessive amount of alkali in the soil, therefore, the regulation of acidity will benefit the plant.
Unsuccessful wintering requires special care from the owner - you need to immediately remove all dry and frozen branches, carry out complex top dressing nutrients, repeatedly spray the plant. It will no longer bloom this year, but next summer, with proper preparation for life in winter conditions beautiful hydrangea will bloom in full force, bowing under the weight of their colorful flower caps.
Preparing hydrangeas for winter video. pruning
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In our climate, almost all perennial horticultural crops need warming, which is usually done just before the frost. As for panicle hydrangea, opinions vary greatly. The fact is that the area of its natural growth is regions with relatively low temperatures, and even with their sharp drops in combination with high humidity. For example, Far East, Japan, China. Therefore, it is referred to the group of frost-resistant plants. Hence the disputes over the question - is it worth covering the hydrangea for the winter or can this procedure be neglected.
In nature, there are about 80 species of this flower. Categorization is rather complicated, but this is not the main thing - only a few representatives of the dicotyledonous class are cultivated on the territory of the Russian Federation. One of them is panicle hydrangea. Her inflorescences white color, which eventually acquires a pinkish tint, which is why paniculate hydrangea is often called pink.
Unlike other varieties, panicle hydrangea tolerates temperatures down to -35 ºС, but this is provided that it is reliably protected from the wind. In addition, the buds from which the buds then develop are formed on one-year-old sprouts that appear in the spring of the current year. Therefore, the peculiarity of the shelter is to protect, first of all, its root system from freezing.
Any plant, even securely sheltered for the winter, is unlikely to successfully endure the cold period if it is weakened by autumn and, moreover, is affected by some pest. Therefore, it is necessary to prepare hydrangea for winter ahead of time. As a rule, experienced gardeners start doing this from mid-summer, regardless of the climate in the region.
- Completely switch to fertilizers containing phosphorus and potassium. Fertilizing based on nitrogen and its compounds should be discarded. The explanation is simple - they reduce the frost resistance of the plant and initiate the growth of young shoots. Neither panicle hydrangea, as you might guess, is not necessary on the eve of winter.
- With the onset of autumn, watering the flower must be stopped. This is necessary for the speedy lignification of all branches that will overwinter.
- At the same time, leaves are removed. When to do this, it is not difficult to determine if you understand the meaning of this agrotechnical event. Moisture “leaves” (evaporates) through the leaves of the plant, and if they are left for the winter, dehydration of the wood will occur.
It is advisable to get rid of greenery at the end of the rainy period. But this applies only to the branches of the lower rows, since this procedure accelerates the process of their stiffening. Before frosts, all the rest are removed for the reason that it is on the leaves that they often settle garden pests which will safely (if the greens are left) overwinter with hydrangea. Naturally, if it is completely covered.
There are recommendations that the leaves from the tops of the shoots do not need to be touched, since they serve as a kind of protection for the places where flower buds subsequently form. In this case, the authors confuse plant varieties. Hydrangea paniculata differs in that the most developed (and therefore promising) buds are located in areas from the trunk to the center of the branches. It is from them that, at the end of winter, those shoots appear, on which buds subsequently bloom. Therefore, if the tops freeze, then this will in no way affect the flowering of hydrangeas next year. Moreover, at spring pruning, in the process of crown formation, they are usually removed.
Ways to shelter for the winter
The decision on the advisability of holding this event is made by the owner of the site himself, based on the characteristics of the climate, as well as the level of ventilation of the territory. There is no point in explaining that high humidity and a strong side wind, even with slight frosts, the hydrangea can die during the winter. In addition, it is important that this flower is a bush or a tree. After all, the height of the last variety reaches 2.5 - 3 m, and in some specimens - 8, or even 10.
Hilling
The most simple technology known to all gardeners. This forethought helps protect trunk circle from freezing. What to use?
Experienced gardeners recommend hilling with a mixture of land from the site and peat. Fertilizer not only insulates the soil, but also gives it good nourishment when warm days come. Part of the melt water, penetrating deep into the ground, supplies the root system with the necessary nutrients. In this case, the process of fertilizing in the spring is greatly simplified.
Recommendations for using fallen leaves, grass, haulm, straw, sawdust to cover the bottom of the hydrangea, although they are often found on separate sites, are hardly correct. There are several reasons for abandoning this method of hiding.
- First, when wet, the vegetation begins to rot. As a result, mold and fungus, which will immediately spread to panicled hydrangea.
- Secondly, it is in such a mass that small rodents like to settle for the winter.
- Thirdly, on the same old leaves there are always various garden pests (or their larvae). That is why one of the most common tips for beginner summer residents is that all plant debris collected on the territory must be immediately disposed of through incineration.
If the pruning of hydrangeas on the eve of winter is low enough, and the total height of the bush is small, then it is advisable to pour an earthen lump with the expectation that it completely covers the stems rising above the ground.
Hilling + sheltering branches
This is the most common technique, since in most regions the temperature drops quite low in winter.
How to cover branches:
- If they are not particularly long, then it is enough to tie them, and insulate the resulting “cocoon” suitable material. The choice is large - old tree branches, spruce branches, roofing felt (covered with polyethylene film). Everything else will be provided by snow crust - this is the most reliable natural "blanket" for any plant in winter.
- With a significant length of the stems, the branches will have to be bent as close to the ground as possible. This makes hiding them much easier. The process is simple, the main thing is to securely fix them so that they cannot straighten up during the winter (for example, in strong winds).
First way. "Pin" the tops of the shoots with metal staples. They are easy to make from pieces of thick wire. The only thing to consider is that these fixation elements must have long “antennae”, otherwise they will not be firmly held by the ground and will pop out of it relatively easily.
The second way. Put a piece of board on the ground, in which (with reverse side) nails are driven in. Here, to their protruding tips, the branches are tied up.
It remains only to securely cover the hydrangea on top. What is already noted.
It is more difficult with adult bushes, the branches of which are difficult to bend down due to their considerable thickness, and therefore poor compliance. In this case, it is advisable to make a complete shelter with some kind of insulating sheet. Experienced gardeners recommend focusing on lutrasil, spunbond or something similar. These materials are specially designed to protect plants from the "surprises" of the weather, including frost. Sold in several versions, so best option pick up is easy.
With this method panicled hydrangea completely "wrapped" in the canvas. To prevent the dome from falling apart from the wind and snow load, it is tied (with adhesive tape, rope), after which it is additionally (and it is desirable to do this!) frame structure. It can be built from metal arcs, mesh. The point is that then it is covered with a p / e film, and the resulting air gap (it is enough to organize it at 10 - 15 cm) between the polyethylene sheath and the inner protective layer provides more reliable insulation. For regions with frosty winters - the best option plant cover.
Panicled hydrangea adapts quite well to growing conditions. Planted on the site, it gradually adapts to the characteristics of the local climate. This means that as it grows, the method of sheltering a plant can be simplified over time. But if we are talking about a young hydrangea, then it is better to cover it with " full program". This ensures that she will endure all the "surprises" of the weather safely.
