Hydrangea Pink Annabelle.

I have a white ‘Annabel’ and each year, in early spring, I prune it right back to 4-6”. That’s to make the stems strong enough to take the weight of v big flowers apparently. That was advice coming from loads of hydrangea experts. Each year I panic and think I’ve killed it, and each year, with regular water and loads of fertiliser, it shoots from the base. Every year I’ve been rewarded by enormous flowers that are the size of cauliflowers. My advice would be to water snd feed it and look out for shoots coming from the bottom. Good luck!

These last April night frost has damaged the newly growing buds but I am hopeful that they will recover again although I may not have the display that I normally have. Having say that one of my hydrangeas that grows in the shade doesn’t look good. It may, like yours ,doesn’t look as if going to survive. Never happened before. I have them for 7 years. They even survived the “Beast from the East”... was that a couple of years ago?

There are different types of hydrangea. One that flowers on new seasons growth and the other on old wood. I’ve got a white Annabelle and it gets chopped down to just above ground level every autumn. It is a bit slower in getting going than the others. It’s also been very dry this April so it might like a jolly good drink. I’d love to see a pink one, it must be glorious.

If you didn't watch Gardener's World yesterday you might want to see it on catch-up as Monty talks about pruning of hydrangeas etc.

Reading the info on line it seems the Annabelle behave differently. They can flower on this year's new stems. All my other ordinary and Paniculatas are in leaf on existing stems, and I have left on the old heads as protection.
The soil is quite moist but I will water and mulch. Thank you for the suggestions.

We lost a blue hydrangea last year. It was about a year old and in a large pot. The new leaves started to sprout then we had a very sharp frost, the small leaf buds went black and the plant died.

With larger ones in the ground we leave the flowers on all winter to protect the plant and our dark pink one has quite a few leaves now.

Does it need a mulch and a drink? We haven't had much rain lately, not sure if you have in your area, shysal.
🤞

Ours are showing plenty of signs of new growth but we are in the south of the UK.

Ours are just starting to peep through - you have to look carefully to see them tho'!! Wait a bit longer, and hopefully they will appear

Have never heard of a hydrangea dying back to the ground.
Is this some unusual dwarf version? All ours lose their leaves of course, but the stems are still there all Winter, and are now all in leaf.Sorry I can’t help Shysal

Mine have just started to grow back. Give it a little more time.