A popular choice among many homeowners, hydrangea trees are most commonly used to spice up the home landscape. Proper care ensures that you have a good and healthy tree.
Hydrangea trees are deciduous flowering plants and can grow to a height of 10 to 25 feet. The number of species of hydrangea trees goes to more than 100 and there are several subspecies of this plant. The type of flowers and their size vary a great deal, thereby making it difficult to generalize hydrangea tree species.
Usually, these plants flower during middle to latter part of the summer months. During the mid summer, the flowers are white in color making the plant look as if it's filled with snow. Towards the latter half of the summer months, they turn bluish-pink to purplish pink.
If you want an ornamental plant, you can go for this plant and your garden can look highly attractive if you grow it in groups of three.
Caring for Hydrangea
The first and the most important thing to remember while caring for hydrangea tree is that you should provide enough sunlight for its growth. If it's planted in a shady area, the chances of the tree not growing to its full potential is high.
Depending on the location in which you plant the tree, the amount of sunlight required would vary. In case you live in a warm climate, you would need a somewhat shaded part, but if you live in cooler places, more sunlight would be required.
Make sure you don't plant the tree near another tree as it would fail to grow properly. The main reason for this is that, the roots of the other trees nearby would grow very aggressively as the soil around the hydrangea tree is moist, thereby not letting the hydrangea root to grow to its full potential.
The next important point which you should keep in mind while planting this tree is the kind of soil required. Soil should be well drained and should be highly fertile. In case the soil in your area is not well drained, it would be better if you add some organic materials, so that it drains better.
Make sure to provide enough water to the plant, especially, during its formative years. After it matures, you would not need to water it that frequently, except of course during droughts.
While planting, choose a place where the tree is able to reach its full size without you requiring to prune it. Moreover, the best time to plant these trees is during late fall or early summer.
Pruning Hydrangea
While you are pruning hydrangea tree, make sure that you get it done in the early part of spring, so that in the following months, it can grow quite well. Clean off shoots at the base first and then go on to those which comes out from the lower trunk.
Keep the trunk bare, so as to give it the form of a tree. Once you are done with the base, prune the branches, so as to give it a look of an umbrella. Shorten the branches but ensure that you keep two to three nodes on each branch.
These small bumps form the side shoots later, which ultimately form flowers during summers.
Excessive branching is another area which you should look at while you are pruning the plant. Keep about 5 to 6 branches originating from the main trunk, but make sure that you keep those in such a way, that they are in the form of an umbrella.
Then you need to chop off stragglers which grow straight. You need to cut those as close as possible to the trunk or branch, if its attached to one of the branches.
Try and maintain the hydrangea trees, so as to give your garden the look you always wanted. While pruning make sure that you don't cut the branches too short or else the plant may die.