I have a long established climbing hydrangea growing on a fence along our driveway. It has been there for about 15 years, and every year gets a little bigger, and better! In March of this year, when we had the hot spell, the climbing hydrangea started leafing out from most, but not all, of its buds. There is a fairly large area that had green buds that looked like they were ready to burst...but just never did! And still have not. The rest of the hydrangea is now starting to flower. I'm wondering if I should cut back the branches that have not budded, or just leave them alone?

I've never had any problems at all with this climbing hydrangea, and am not sure how to handle this.

On a separate note, I was wondering if it is possible to prune a climbing hydrangea, and if so, how and when do you do it? My hydrangea is quite architectural and beautiful...and everyone who looks at it says they don't know where to even begin to think about cutting it back. However, my husband is starting to get annoyed with it because it is encroaching into our driveway.

Thank you for your assistance!

Hi,

i would suggest pruning out those portions that are not leafing out. I would also suggest pruning to maintain size and you can do that right after flowering. Pruning can be done on a selective basis to maintain the look that you want while still making it conform to limits you impose.