A combination of mopheads – the pink, purple and blue – and Annabelles.
Some of my friends continue to complain about their hydrangeas. “They didn’t bloom this year!” “I only had a few blossoms.”
So what’s a master gardener to do? Here’s some advice that will most likely help your hydrangeas be more productive in 2026.
First question: What type of hydrangeas do you have? With nearly a half-dozen varieties that grow well in North Georgia, it’s hard to pick a favorite. From the large white blooms of Annabelle to the distinctive Oak Leaf with cone-shaped bloom heads, the changeable pink, lavender, purple or blue Mopheads and sun-loving Panicles, you can fill your yard from shade areas to full sun with a full summer of flowering.
Here’s a list of the most common hydrangeas in Georgia and some hints to improve flowering for next year:
Mopheads
By now, mopheads are just about finished for the season for most of us. Now’s the time to deadhead spent blossoms and give the plants a haircut. They bloom on last year’s wood, so the safest time to prune is immediately after flowering.
Make your pruning conservatively. Remove the spent bloom head and the stem about 2-3 leave joints down the stem. Note that you’re looking for a pair of green leaf buds and cut directly above them. You can prune until mid-September without risking losing next year’s blooms.
Mopheads’ wide range of color is generally determined by the PH of the soil. If it’s acidic, meaning the PH is low like much of our Georgia clay, you’re likely to have blue flowers. By adding lime for the garden be more alkaline, your blue mopheads will gradually produce pink blooms. First, they’ll move to lavenders and purples, then eventually – and I mean eventually, like several years – reward you with deep pink flowers.
Some people are fortunate to have both pink and blue on the same or adjacent plants without any coercion. Other gardeners struggle – like me – to convert their blue Mopheads to pink. Go figure.
One of my Master Gardener friends shared her secret several years ago when it comes to mopheads that occur naturally as blue in North Georgia: Her secret? Use cold fireplace ashes on the plants each spring, sprinkling them at the base of the plants liberally.
When we clean our wood stove for next spring, that’s where our ashes go. But it doesn’t seem to be enough, so each spring and again in the fall, I dutifully purchase garden dolomitic lime from my local box retailer that’s labeled for changing soil acidity. After about five years, I’m finally seeing some progress with blues becoming slightly pinker.
I have noticed that one of my Mopheads is always dark purple, but it’s planted next to our concrete patio and common sense tells me that it’s absorbing some elements from the nearby concrete.
Not as particular
Annabelles are pretty carefree and can be covered with lovely basketball sized blossoms. They prefer shade and are not as picky about the PH of the soil. Just keep them well watered. If you prune right after they bloom you may be rewarded with a second less showy flush of blossoms in the fall.
Panicle hydrangeas, which prefer full sun, start out with white or light-pink conical blossoms. As they mature, they get slightly larger and turn pinkish. Today’s professional growers have developed a wide variety of cultivars that range from pure white to lime green to deep pink. Look for familiar names like Limelight, Firelight deep pink and Vanilla Strawberry. They can be pruned any time of year except summer.
Oak Leaf Hydrangeas are the show for multi-season color. One of the best places I’ve seen showy plantings is Gibbs Gardens in Ball Ground. Planted beneath tree canopies at the edge of wooded areas, their elongated cone-shaped blossoms are prolific starting in June and continuing through summer. In the fall, the oak leaf-shaped foliage changes to reds, oranges, rust and burgundy. The cinnamon-colored bark provides winter interest as it naturally peels. Oak Leaf is a Georgia native plant, an added reason for planting it in your yard.
Sources for Hydrangeas
Locally owned nurseries specialize in selling multiple varieties of plants and they’re a good bet for a wide range of hydrangea cultivars. You can find basic types at box retailers or you can order them online.
If you have friends with gardens, ask them to share with you, either by air-layering – placing a branch on the ground weighted down with a brick or rock until roots develop, typically six months or so – or by taking cuttings and rooting them in water or moist potting soil.
The University of Georgia’s Cooperative Extension offers publications about gardening at no charge. For information visit extension.uga.edu.
Photo: by Pamela A. Keene
