Why isn’t my hydrangea runaway bride flowering?

[WellTidy]

I was super excited to buy last year’s RHS Chelsea plant of the year a month or so ago. It was a 2 litre very healthy looking plant, full of flower.

I have it in a pot, but all the flowers it had when I bought it have dried and fallen off, and although lots of foliage has grown, there are no flowers on it. I’ve moved it from full sun to part sun and part shade for the last fortnight, but still no flowers.

I water it daily as I know that they are very thirsty. All of my other hydrangeas, young and established, are doing great!

I think hydrangeas flower on the previous year's wood, so having lost its blooms this year - presumably it got to dry in a pot in the sun - I doubt you'll get any this year. But if there's lots of foliage growth it should be good next year.

How big is the pot and what is it made of? I've got one that does ok (though doesn't get big, I probably should pot it up or plant it out) in a pot somewhat larger than a bucket, which is plastic rather than terracotta and so doesn't dry as quickly.

I have rescued several Hydrangeas from near death. They need a decent sized pot or planter, good multi purpose compost, frequent water so they don’t dry out and feeding once a fortnight.
The flowering buds are usually found in leaf pairs along the stem and in April they can be pruned to a strong pair.
You probably won’t get many, if any flowers now, but they do produce flowers into late summer.
So, repot if necessary, keep watered and feed.
I’ll post some of my rescues from last year, that are in flower now.

Thanks for the replies. I had thought that it would flower all summer as that is what all the blurb says about a runaway bride - that it flowers the entire length of the stem and all summer. I thought that meant this summer! This variety doesn’t grow very big and says that it is best suited to a pot so that you can properly see the blooms. It is very healthy so I will continue to keep it in its plastic pot, water daily and feed fortnightly.

I think with hydrangeas it's more that the flowers are very long-lasting rather than that there's much of a succession of them?

I wasn't sure if you meant it's still in it's 2 litre pot, I'd have thought potting it up a bit would be a good idea, not just so it can develop more root but so it's got a bit more of a reservoir of water.

It is in a new pot (Wilko's best ) about 10 litres, I'd imagine, with drainage. The flowers that were on it when I bought it faded and went brown after about 2 weeks. I didn't mind this at the time as I thought there would be a succession of them as the branches grew. The branches have grown and look healthy, but no buds or flowers, unline what I was expecting.

Ah well. I will keep it healthy and wait for next year.

Maybe it's busy growing roots and top - which may be disappointing for this year but will make for a better plant in the long run. I've had my potted hydrangea too long to remember, I'm sure well over 10 years and it's still going strong.

Are you keeping it well watered?

The hydra means water and they need lots of it.

It may well have been forced into flowering for the chelsea flower Show so it might not flower again this year - but if you dont get any more flowers it will be gorgeous next year.

Welltidy don’t give up on flowers this season. As you can see from my photos there are quite a few immature florets on the plants, while there are also mature full blooms.
I agree with the pp who said the plants at Chelsea, and elsewhere, are forced into flowering. Its all rather unnatural
, but otherwise they’d have no blooms to show.
I also find it weird that they hold some plants back, so there’s a mixture of plants that are not naturally in season together.

Yes, I am keeping it well watered. I have other hydrangeas in the ground and in pots and they are doing great. I know that they're thirsty plants.

It wasn't from Chelsea this year. It was from my local garden centre. The plant won 'Plant of the year' at Chelsea last year, with much fanfare, so they have been very popular to buy in garden centres this year.

I will keep the faith, bon jovi style. Thanks all.

I think they force them for garden centres too. And - not in the case of white ones like yours, obv - dose some of them with alum to blue them.

Agree with Beebumble. It’s supposed to have a very long flowering season, but if it aborted its buds (possibly got dried out for a spell,, or sunscorched) it may or may not bother to make more flower buds this year. Dont worry, it will be better than ever next year

Lovely! Thank you.