Do Hydrangeas Rebloom: Learn About Reblooming Hydrangea Varieties

Hydrangeas with their big, blousy blooms, are spring and early summer showstoppers. Once they have performed their flower show though, the plant stops blooming. For some gardeners this is frustrating, and getting hydrangeas to rebloom is the question of the day.

Do hydrangeas rebloom? The plants only bloom once annually, but there are reblooming hydrangea varieties.

Will Hydrangeas Rebloom if Deadheaded?

There are things in this world you can control and things you can't. With hydrangeas, you can control how many blooms they get, their size, their health, and even in some cases their bloom color. One of the big questions is how to get them to rebloom. Will hydrangeas rebloom if deadheaded? Should you feed them more?

Deadheading is good practice on many blooming plants. It often promotes another bloom cycle and it certainly tidies up the plant's appearance. It is a simple process by which you remove the spent flower, and often stems, back to the next growth node. In certain plants, the growth node will produce more flowers in that same year. In other plants, the node will not swell until the following year. Such is the case in hydrangeas.

They will not rebloom, but deadheading will clean up the plant and make way for the next year's fresh flowers.

Do Hydrangeas Rebloom?

Whether you have the big leaf, smooth leaf, or panicle type of hydrangea, you will see one spectacular bloom per year. As much as you may wish it, hydrangea reblooming does not occur on the standard varieties of the species. Many gardeners spend lots of time pruning and feeding with the goal of getting hydrangeas to rebloom, all to no avail.

Panicle hydrangeas bloom on new wood and can be pruned at any time of the year, but big leaf varieties bloom off old wood and should be pruned minimally after flowering. Flooding plants with food will do nothing but possibly cause new growth that can be winter killed. If your hydrangeas fail to bloom, there are fixes for that and you can encourage more blooms but you can't get a second bloom.

Reblooming Hydrangea Varieties

Since no amount of food or pruning will encourage hydrangea reblooming, what can you do if you want a repeat act of the powerful flowers? Plant a variety that blooms off both old and new wood for successive flowering. They are called remontant, which means reblooming.

One of the first introduced was 'Endless Summer,' a blue mophead variety, but there are many others now available. In fact, rebloomers are so popular there are many varieties such as:

• Forever and Ever – Pistachio, Blue Heaven, Summer Lace, Fantasia
• Everlasting - has eight varieties in different colors
• Endless Summer – Blushing Bride, Twist and Shout

If you have your heart set on a summer of reblooming hydrangeas, try these. Just remember, hydrangeas hate excessive heat and even these varieties will shut down flower production in high, dry, and hot conditions.