Gardening often offers some pretty helpful lessons to the gardener during fleeting summer Garden Moments.
If the gardener is paying attention.
I admit it took me a while to figure out why my beautiful Hydrangea plants from the South refused to blossom for almost three years. I was frustrated, disappointed and ready to pull them out and start all over with a new variety.
Until I decided to investigate further and educate myself about what I thought I knew about raising Hydrangeas.
Like many people, I always thought these were easy plants to grow. Ones that resulted in the most incredible cut and dried flowers with little or no effort on my part.
Wrong.
Each fall, I would cut the plants down almost to the ground, convinced that would force floral magic the next summer.
It wasn’t until I visited a gardening site featuring gorgeous Hydrangea gardens that I learned a big lesson that turned my garden around.
The caretaker for one of the most stunning Hydrangea displays I’ve ever seen, shared golden online words of wisdom about what makes Hydrangeas bloom successfully year after year.
Her answer was my big gardening lesson.
“Be careful how much and when you prune them back.”
I had not only been choosing the wrong time to prune. But I had been way too aggressive in cutting them down to the ground.
So last fall, I decided to take this expert advice, and except for removing the dead flowers, I didn’t prune my Hydrangeas at all.
These photos show the spectacular result of that informed decision.
To say I am thrilled to look out my back window and finally see these bushes in their 2023 garden glory, is an understatement.
I learned a big lesson. Because I put aside gardening ego to further educate myself about what I thought I already knew, I’m now enjoying the beautiful Hydrangea show I had dreamed of for years.
Patience and education did the garden trick. A gardening lesson I will never forget.
Sometimes, gardening woes have nothing to do with the soil.
It’s the gardener.
Lesson learned.
Good overall life lesson, too.
What big garden lessons have you learned?
Winter Images 2023. All rights reserved.
