How (And When!) To Deadhead Hydrangeas, According To A Horticulturalist

Hydrangeas are gorgeous shrubs that add color and interest to your garden from spring to fall. But if your hydrangeas aren’t looking their best, you may want to deadhead, or remove, spent blooms. “Hydrangea flowers usually age gracefully,” says Stacey Hirvela, horticulturalist with Proven Winners Color Choice Shrubs. “But if your plants have experienced drought or heat stress and the flowers don’t look good, you can trim them off to neaten the appearance of the shrub.”

It's important to understand that even if the flowers aren’t looking their best, there’s no problem leaving the faded blooms intact from a plant health perspective, says Hirvela. It won’t harm the plant. But if the wilted blooms are bothering you, there’s no sense looking at sad, brown flowers for the rest of the growing season. Go ahead and deadhead as needed.

How To Deadhead Hydrangeas

It’s simple! Grab the spent bloom in one hand, and use hand pruners to snip it off to the first full set of leaves below the flower, not the little, tiny leaflets right under it, says Hirvela.

For varieties that bloom on old wood, such as oak leaf hydrangeas and big leaf hydrangeas, take off as little as possible on these types right after they bloom so that you don’t affect next year’s flower power, says Hirvela.

When To Deadhead Hydrangeas

You can deadhead hydrangeas any time you don’t like the look of the blooms. “It’s strictly personal preference,” says Hirvela. Most flowers on a hydrangea bloom roughly around the same time, so you’ll typically only need to deadhead once a season if tidying up the entire shrub, or you can prune selectively to remove any blooms you don’t like.

After the growing season ends, you can leave the dried flower heads intact to provide winter interest in your garden, if you like. Or you can deadhead hydrangeas in the winter as an off-season garden chore to ready the plant for spring. If brown flowers still are clinging to the shrub by spring, go ahead and snip them off so they don’t mar this year’s display, says Hirvela.

Will Deadheading Hydrangeas Promote More Blooms?

Not necessarily. When deadheading annuals and some perennials, you “trick” the plant into pushing more blooms because it thinks it has not made seeds to reproduce. “But deadheading isn’t going to make much of a difference with most hydrangeas,” says Hirvela. “The main thing you can do to encourage reblooming is to keep them growing vigorously and pushing new growth.”

You can keep your hydrangea happy and healthy by making sure it gets afternoon shade in hot climates; ensuring it’s getting sufficient water, especially during drought; and feeding your hydrangeas with a granular controlled release fertilizer for acidic plants, such as HollyTone, next spring.

But when it comes to deadheading, it’s totally up to you. If you enjoy puttering in the garden or like a neater appearance, go ahead and deadhead your hydrangea as needed. But you won’t harm the plant or affect blooming if you don’t, says Hirvela.