Planting and pruning hydrangeas: which to cut back when

For pruning, hydrangeas fall into two groups. Panicle and smooth hydrangeas (such as 'Annabelle') flower on this year's shoots: cut them back to 25-60 cm in February or March. Bigleaf and mountain hydrangeas flower from buds that grew last year: in spring take off only the faded flowers, or they will not flower that year. Plant in autumn or spring, with plenty of water; for limy soil choose panicle or smooth hydrangea, as bigleaf hydrangea wants acid or neutral soil and afternoon shade.

Updated: October 26, 2026 · Prices checked: October 26, 2026 · Data and prices from our plant database, worked out for your country. How our data is made

Panicle hydrangea in sun, smooth hydrangea with white flower balls and blue bigleaf hydrangea in the part shade of a tree — Panicle hydrangea takes sun and limy soil; bigleaf hydrangea wants part shade and acid or neutral soil.

Which hydrangea is which?

The panicle hydrangea bears cone-shaped panicles, white turning pinkish, from July to October. It is the least demanding: it takes sun, limy soil and hard winters. The smooth hydrangea and its best-known cultivar, 'Annabelle', bear large white balls of flowers and are hardy too.

The bigleaf hydrangea is the classic blue or pink mophead (or flat lacecap) hydrangea; the smaller mountain hydrangea is its relative. They are the loveliest and also the fussiest: they want part shade, plenty of water and acid or neutral soil, and their flower buds can freeze. Less common are the oakleaf, the rough-leaved and the climbing hydrangea, which climbs a wall or tree to over 10 metres.

Panicle hydrangea

Deciduous

Pruning: hard, in early spring
Light: full sun, part shade
Limy soil: takes it
Hardiness: down to -34 °C
Price per plant: HUF 7,000

Smooth hydrangea 'Annabelle'

Deciduous

Pruning: hard, in early spring
Light: part shade, full sun, shade
Limy soil: takes it
Hardiness: down to -34 °C
Price per plant: HUF 9,200

Smooth hydrangea

Deciduous

Pruning: hard, in early spring
Light: part shade, full sun, shade
Limy soil: takes it
Hardiness: down to -34 °C
Price per plant: HUF 7,800

Limelight panicle hydrangea

Deciduous

Pruning: hard, in early spring
Light: full sun, part shade
Limy soil: takes it
Hardiness: down to -40 °C
Price per plant: HUF 5,000

Bigleaf hydrangea

Deciduous

Pruning: in spring, only the faded flowers
Light: part shade, shade
Limy soil: does not
Hardiness: down to -23 °C
Price per plant: HUF 5,000

Mountain hydrangea

Deciduous

Pruning: in spring, only the faded flowers
Light: part shade
Limy soil: does not
Hardiness: down to -23 °C
Price per plant: HUF 7,000

Oakleaf hydrangea

Deciduous

Pruning: hardly: only dead stems
Light: part shade, full sun, shade
Limy soil: does not
Hardiness: down to -29 °C
Price per plant: HUF 7,700

Rough-leaved hydrangea

Deciduous

Pruning: hardly: only dead stems
Light: part shade
Limy soil: does not
Hardiness: down to -18 °C
Price per plant: HUF 8,000

Climbing hydrangea

Deciduous

Pruning: after flowering, overlong shoots
Light: part shade, shade
Limy soil: does not
Hardiness: down to -34 °C
Price per plant: HUF 7,400

Hydrangea	Pruning	Light	Limy soil	Hardiness	Price per plant
Panicle hydrangea Deciduous	hard, in early spring	full sun, part shade	takes it	down to -34 °C	HUF 7,000
Smooth hydrangea 'Annabelle' Deciduous	hard, in early spring	part shade, full sun, shade	takes it	down to -34 °C	HUF 9,200
Smooth hydrangea Deciduous	hard, in early spring	part shade, full sun, shade	takes it	down to -34 °C	HUF 7,800
Limelight panicle hydrangea Deciduous	hard, in early spring	full sun, part shade	takes it	down to -40 °C	HUF 5,000
Bigleaf hydrangea Deciduous	in spring, only the faded flowers	part shade, shade	does not	down to -23 °C	HUF 5,000
Mountain hydrangea Deciduous	in spring, only the faded flowers	part shade	does not	down to -23 °C	HUF 7,000
Oakleaf hydrangea Deciduous	hardly: only dead stems	part shade, full sun, shade	does not	down to -29 °C	HUF 7,700
Rough-leaved hydrangea Deciduous	hardly: only dead stems	part shade	does not	down to -18 °C	HUF 8,000
Climbing hydrangea Deciduous	after flowering, overlong shoots	part shade, shade	does not	down to -34 °C	HUF 7,400

The table shows the hydrangeas sold in your country, by pruning group. Hardiness is how much frost the plant itself takes: the flower buds of bigleaf and mountain hydrangeas can freeze in milder frost. The price is the typical price of a plant of the usual size.

Where to plant?

Light: panicle and smooth hydrangeas grow in sun too if watered. Bigleaf and mountain hydrangeas belong in part shade: morning sun suits them, hot afternoon sun burns their leaves and flowers. The best spot is an east-facing wall or the edge of a tree's canopy.
Soil: rich in humus, moist but free-draining. On limy soil (most gardens in the Carpathian Basin) panicle and smooth hydrangeas are the safe choice; the smooth one's leaves may yellow a little on very limy ground. Plant a bigleaf hydrangea in limy soil only in a large hole filled with ericaceous (rhododendron) compost, and even then its leaves may yellow.
Water: hydrangeas are among the thirstiest shrubs. Do not plant them in a sunny, dry spot of a garden without watering; choose from the drought-tolerant shrubs there, and from shrubs for part shade for part shade.
Wind: the large-flowered shoots can flop in wind and after a summer downpour. Plant them in a sheltered spot; you can put a small support ring around 'Annabelle' in spring.

Planting step by step

Plant in spring, from April to May, after the frosts: a newly planted hydrangea is sensitive in its first winter, and this way it has a whole summer to root. In autumn, plant only in September, so it roots in before winter. A container hydrangea can go in during summer too, but not in a heatwave.
Dig a hole twice as wide as the root ball and loosen its bottom. Mix ripe compost into the soil you dug out, and ericaceous (rhododendron) compost too for bigleaf and mountain hydrangeas.
Set the plant as deep as it was in the pot. Space the plants at their mature width: bigleaf and smooth hydrangeas about 1 metre apart, panicle hydrangeas 1.2-2 metres.
After planting, water in well with 10-20 litres a plant, and cover the base with 5-7 cm of bark mulch. Pine bark is especially good for bigleaf hydrangea, as it makes the soil slightly more acid.

Pruning: which to cut back when

When to prune depends on where the flowers grow. Panicle and smooth hydrangeas flower at the tips of this year's shoots, grown in spring, so in winter there is no flower bud on them to cut off. The flower buds of bigleaf and mountain hydrangeas form at the end of the summer before, in autumn: cut these back hard in autumn or spring and you cut off the flowers.

The dashed part comes off. On bigleaf hydrangea the cut falls just above the first strong pair of buds: these buds make this year's flowers.

Panicle and smooth hydrangeas, February-March: cut last year's stems back to just above a healthy pair of buds. Hard pruning (to a framework of about 25 cm) gives fewer but larger flowers on strong, upright stems; for a taller shrub, cut at about 60 cm. You can leave the dry flowers on over winter; they look good.
Bigleaf and mountain hydrangeas, March-April: cut the faded flower head off each shoot just above the first strong, swelling pair of buds. On an old plant you can also cut one or two of the oldest stems at the base each year; new shoots grow in their place. Leave the old flower heads on over winter, as they protect the buds below from frost. Remontant bigleaf hydrangeas such as 'Endless Summer' also flower on this year's shoots, so they flower even after a frost or a wrong cut.
Oakleaf and rough-leaved hydrangeas: they need hardly any pruning; in spring cut out only dead and overlong stems.
Climbing hydrangea: after flowering, in summer, cut back overlong shoots. Its flowers open mostly on the upper part of the shoots, so leave as much of that as you can.
If a spring frost has caught the shoots, cut the frozen part back to the first sound pair of buds.

Why is my hydrangea not flowering?

You pruned at the wrong time: cut a bigleaf hydrangea back in autumn or spring and you cut off its flower buds. It makes a fine, leafy shrub without flowers.
The flower buds froze: the bigleaf hydrangea itself survives the winter, but its flower buds can freeze in a hard frost or a late frost in April. A brown or black bud will not flower.
Too much shade: in deep shade a hydrangea makes leaves and hardly any flowers.
Too much nitrogen: a nitrogen-rich lawn fertiliser grows leaves, not flowers.
It dried out in late summer: next year's flower buds form in August and September. If the plant goes thirsty then, it flowers less the next summer.
It is still young: a newly planted hydrangea spends its first year or two on its roots and flowers less.

Blue or pink?

The flower colour of bigleaf and mountain hydrangeas depends on the soil's pH. In acid soil (below pH 5.5) the plant takes up aluminium from the soil and its flowers turn blue; in neutral or limy soil (above pH 6.5) the aluminium stays locked up and the flowers are pink. In between you get violet. White cultivars do not change, and the pinkish autumn colour of panicle hydrangeas depends on the cultivar, not the soil.

For blue flowers the soil has to stay acid: with ericaceous compost, pine bark mulch, and the hydrangea colourant sold in shops (aluminium sulphate), at the dose on the pack. On limy soil this is hard to keep up for long, as lime comes back from the garden soil and from tap water; there a blue hydrangea keeps best in a large tub of ericaceous compost, watered with rainwater.

Watering and winter protection

In dry summer weather, water deeply once or twice a week, 10-20 litres a plant, ideally in the morning. Leaves wilting in the afternoon on a hot day are no problem if they recover by evening; if they still hang in the morning, the plant is thirsty.
Keep the base covered with mulch so the soil dries out more slowly.
Panicle and smooth hydrangeas need no winter protection.
In late autumn, cover the base of a young bigleaf hydrangea with 10-15 cm of leaves or pine bark. If a late frost comes in spring after it has leafed out, cover it with horticultural fleece for the night.
The roots of a hydrangea in a tub freeze far more easily than in the ground: move it to a frost-free, light place for the winter. Wrapping the tub is not enough: in an average winter the rootball freezes through all the same.

Sources

The advice rests on these expert pages and laws, adapted to Central European winters and soils. The tables come from our own plant database.

Gartenakademie Rheinland-Pfalz: Hortensien (Hydrangea)
Bayerische Gartenakademie: Ziersträucher jetzt schneiden
RHS: Hydrangea pruning
RHS: How to grow shrubby hydrangeas

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