Why don’t my Hydrangeas Bloom?

Protect in the winter for blooms like these

Why doesn’t my hydrangea bloom?

“There are three possibilities for lack of flowering among the hydrangea species. The first two – too much shade and improper pruning – apply to all hydrangeas, while the other – weather-related damage to flower buds – applies primarily to the bigleaf hydrangea.”
This quote comes courtesy of the usda extension-ie, the experts.

Now that we know why they’re not blooming, let’s talk about how we can fix this problem.
1. Wrap your plant with a ShrubGuard,

Wrapping with ShrubGuard for the winter

and stuff a bunch of dry leaves inside the wrapping and leave the top open to allow snow to fall in and provide some insulation against low temperatures. Remember though, mostly you are protecting the plant against drying winds.
2. Although wrapping will help tremendously, it may not be enough if your light is still wrong. It may seem obvious, but do you have enough sunlight? These shrubs are well known as “shade plants” to northern gardeners but let me tell you something-that translates into “shade tolerant”. Growers would like to encourage folks to buy their product so they ALWAYS use the broadest categories of where to plant. Shade tolerant means it can grow in the shade, but does not mean it will bloom lusciously if given a few scant minutes of sunlight.
Remember my rule of thumb: the bigger the bloom, the bigger chunk of light it needs.
Measure your sunlight come early summer with SunStick. If you’re not wrong about how much sunlight your plants receive, write me and tell me to eat a green olive. That’s how sure I am that when plants are not blooming well, they’re suffering from the wrong amount of sunlight…..