Do I need to cover established mock orange bushes from frost?
Pruning in late summer helps the plant get ready for winter.
Keeping the plant watered well into the winter freeze.
Adding 5 to 6 inches of good hardwood mulch around the base of the plants will help insulate the roots.
If the temperatures are well below normal for the Mock Oranges growing zone--4-10, you can cover the shrub with a sheet at night. Remove during the day.
https://www.gardeningknowhow.com/ornamental/shrubs/mock-orange/mock-orange-bushes.htm
I have an overgrown Mock orange bush that's probably well over 50 years old. The base of the bush where the branches are coming out of the ground is about a 4 foot circle now. I cut it with hedge clippers back to about 6 feet high and wide in the fall each year. I'd like to "thin" it out though and perhaps propagate new bushes. I've read articles on proper pruning (which I haven't done). But I can't find anything about downsizing the base (roots) of overgrown shrubs. Thanks.
You can rejuvenate a Mock Orange by pruning heavily, after the spring blossoms.
You can cut back 1/4 of the shrubs canes to the ground to also help rejuvenate the plant. Select the oldest canes for this pruning.
https://www.gardeningknowhow.com/ornamental/shrubs/mock-orange/mock-orange-bushes.htm
Soft wood cuttings should be taken to propagate a Mock Orange.
Dip the cuttings in rooting hormone and place in pots of sand/peat growing medium.
Keep the cuttings in partial shade and keep moist.
I have 2 mock oranges. One is small and seems slow growing but it is full of flowers every year. My other one is growing fast and is already 6 ft high but has no flowers or so few that you have to search for them. What can I do to encourage more flowers to bloom on the tall one? I treat them the same.
Pruning the taller plant in early summer (after it's done blooming) will encourage more blooms next year.
This article will explain the proper way to prune your Mock Orange:
https://www.gardeningknowhow.com/ornamental/shrubs/mock-orange/mock-orange-bushes.htm
How old does a mock orange need to be before it starts to bloom? We planted a mock orange bush 3 years ago We didn't expect it to bloom for the first year or two. This is its third spring. How long will it take to bloom?
It can take a mock orange 3-5 years before it reaches a mature bloom state. For more information on mock orange, please visit the following link:
https://www.gardeningknowhow.com/ornamental/shrubs/mock-orange/mock-orange-bushes.htm
I have shrub with white trumpet-shaped, perfumed flowers with 5 petals and middle top petal has a yellow smudge in middle. When flower falls off, the anthers remain. Leaves are small and pointed and in group of 5/6.
Can you send us an image of the shrub to aid in identification?
Your growing zone will also help us.
I have a mock orange bush in my yard planted by my grandparents 60 years ago. This spring the tree trimmers were contracted by the electric company to clear out some honeysuckle and they mistook my bush for the honeysuckle. They absolutely butchered it. It was over ten feet tall and ten feet in diameter. Now over five feet was hacked to the ground. What is left looks awful. It appears to be sprouting from the stump in the area where they butchered it. I am inclined to cut down the remaining half if it will regrow from the stump as well. This was a beautiful bush with sentimental value and would like advice on how to care for it and whether trimming it down will hurt it. Many thanks!
It is unfortunate that this happened, but not to worry. Pruning a mock orange down to 6 inches above the ground is actually a recommended method known as renewal pruning. See the following articles:
http://www.clemson.edu/extension/hgic/plants/landscape/shrubs/hgic1053.html
https://extension.colostate.edu/mg/gardennotes/616.html
Pruning right after flowering is recommended. However, since you don't have a choice in the pruning that was already done, you can leave it for now and wait till next spring and prune the rest of the branches down just after the bush finishes flowering.
It needs pruning. Can I do it now? Also, some leaves have white on them.
Mock orange should be pruned just after it has flowered and the flowers have faded. You can prune now without hurting the plant, but you won't see flowers next year.
Mock orange is susceptible to powdery mildew, a fungal disease that produces a white "powder" on the leaves.
http://www.extension.umn.edu/garden/diagnose/plant/deciduous/mockorange/spotsorblotches.html
https://www.gardeningknowhow.com/plant-problems/disease/powdery-mildew-homemade-and-organic-remedies.htm