Q.Mulching In Winter
I planted some new perennial plants in spring time including miss saori pink hydrangea they haven’t grown massively but my question is do I need to cut them back to the root in winter and do I cover roots with a mulch. The mulch I bought is bark Thankyou
Temperatures in Batley do not require too many winter preparations. Maintain 5-10cm of organic mulch at all times of the year. Hydrangea roots are shallow, tiny, fibrous and they usually only grow about 10 cm deep or thereabouts. Thus, water if the soil feels dry at that depth. But avoid watering while temperatures are below freezing or if the soil freezes. Do not fertilize until you observe new growth in spring. Hydrangea macrophyllas should not be pruned this late in the growing season because they develop invisible flower buds at the ends of stems in late summer 2021/early fall 2021 and these buds then open in spring 2022. Thus, pruning stems now would result in cutting off spring 2022 blooms. Instead, prune -only if you need to- after they stop opening new blooms in 2022. At any time, you can deadhead spent blooms. You can also prune dead stems that do not leaf out by mid spring 2022. If you plant where the plant can attain its estimated size at maturity, you should not need to prune hydrangeas often. Miss Saori typically gets to be around 0.9 meter high/wide at maturity.
