Are my hydrangeas dead?

[hydrangeaSOS]

Hello!

I'd like to deadhead my hydrangeas this week.

Having just looked at them they don't look healthy. There're some healthy looking dark brown stalks but most look woody and dead.

Can anyone advise? Are they a total lost cause?

Definitely not dead, that's how they're meant to look! I would wait a bit to prune them - maybe towards the end of March?

I thought this too! But you should notice tiny greens buds.
They're just not evergreen.

Does anyone know how to make them grow quicker? Mine have been planted 2 years now and still quite small!

I got these flowers last year and embarrassingly no idea how to care for them. What do you mean by deadhead them?

There are many obvious green buds in that first photo, so not dead.

There may be some deadwood in amongst the living, but I would wait until a bit later in the year to make sure. If there is dead wood, just cut that out.

No, there's green. That's how they're meant to look. I would agree it's a bit early to deadhead, but you should be ok so long as we don't get any sharp frosts.

They take a while to start looking lively again in spring.

Much too early to do this unless you live in Cornwall perhaps. You need no risk of frost and it's not that uncommon to have snow at Easter in the UK so last week of April or thereabouts?

You can mulch hydrangeas to make them grow faster especially if you have poor soil, I've seen feed but it's usually to change colour.
www.gardenersworld.com/how-to/grow-plants/how-to-grow-hydrangeas/#prune

Hydrangeas like water - yours may need a bit more watering @Chazzzzz .

I tend to prune mine when I can’t bear them looking tatty and dead any longer; they are pretty robust.

I can see loads of buds!! They're supposed to die back 😊 all fine. Just cut back the dead stalks. I keep the dry flowers on over winter for interest so it doesn't harm them. I'll probably mulch with well rotted horse shit, same as the roses, not to put a fine point on it.

Have just pruned this weekend

They all look like that at this time of year, it is totally normal. Just prune the stems back by about half, ideally to where you can see a new bud emerging.

Yes, they are fine. My mop head hydrangeas have more buds than that, but my paniculata hydrangeas are alway a bit later getting started in spring. If they are quite young they might like a bit of extra watering if it doesn't rain for several days in a row, they are quite thirsty plants.

As previous posters have said the dead heads can come off and look up how to prune them online. There are loads of videos on YouTube about it. There is different pruning depending on what type they are, from your pictures I would stay that you have either mop head or lace cap hydrangeas which are pruned the same way, paniculata (cone shaped flower head) is a bit different.

There are different sorts of hydrangeas

• Hydrangea macrophylla
• Prune in early spring, cutting back to the first pair of strong buds below the old flowerhead
• Hydrangea paniculata
• Prune in spring, cutting back to a pair of healthy buds lower down on the stems

If you cut them back hard you may get no flowers- my husband tidied one up for me it took 2 years to recover. He thought it was ok to cut low on the stem but it was a macrophylla. Either way for you no pruning until no frost forecast and the take them back to the green bud