7 Fall Hydrangea Care Tips

As the temperatures begin to drop, it’s time to give your hydrangeas some extra love! Lucky for us, hydrangeas need very little coddling. Gardener and biologist Lindsay Miller presents the essentials of fall hydrangea care.

Written by Lindsay Miller Horticulture review by Sarah Jay Last updated: November 11, 2024 | 4 min read

Hydrangea paniculata 'Little Lamb' features soft pink, cone-shaped flower clusters and yellowing leaves in an autumn garden.

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When most people hear “hydrangeas,” they likely envision lacy white and blue poufs that grace the garden midsummer. Rarely do they connect hydrangeas with the autumn landscape – but maybe they should!

Hydrangeas are admittedly not my favorite plant, but I absolutely love the way these classic cottage garden shrubs look in the fall. The foliage deepens from emerald green to burgundy or bronze. Hydrangeas that had white or green flowers in the summer will turn a dusty rose color in the autumn. Left to stand into winter, flower heads dry and form papery clouds that add plenty of textural interest to the garden.

Fall is also the perfect season to prepare these long-lived woody shrubs for next year’s growth. Hydrangeas are resilient and relatively fuss-free plants, but a few basic gardening tasks can ensure they keep blooming for decades to come. Read on for a few care tips that will help your hydrangea flourish this fall and beyond!

Water Well

A close-up of a large inflorescence of small, bright pink, four-petaled flowers covered in raindrops among serrated green foliage. — Consistent watering protects plants from winter stress and disease.

When the temps drop, it’s really easy to ditch the hose and forget all about watering. But summers are long and hot, and droughts can often drag on into the autumn. Even when they’re heading into dormancy, hydrangeas need regular, consistent hydration. Drought-stressed plants are much more susceptible to diseases and winter burn.

As long as the temperature is consistently in the upper 30s or 40s (~0-4°C), keep watering your hydrangea. Avoid splashing water all over the upper foliage; keep the hose pointed at the soil, or use drip irrigation. Shrub and tree roots cannot absorb water through frozen soil, so you can stop watering once the ground freezes solid.

Mulch

Apply a 2-3 inch layer of organic mulch around the base and dripline of the hydrangea. Wood chips, shredded bark mulch, or chopped leaves are perfect. Mulch not only helps conserve soil moisture, but will insulate the roots and crown from extreme temperatures.

An organic mulch will break down over time – but that’s a good thing! Chopped leaves and bark add carbon and organic matter to the soil, lightens heavy clay, and feeds beneficial soil microbes. All of this will benefit your hydrangea. Just know that you’ll likely need to add a fresh layer the following autumn as the biomass breaks down.

Skip the Fertilizer

Close-up of a woman in blue gloves holding a glass bowl filled with white granular fertilizer near a young hydrangea bush in a sunny garden. — Feed shrubs in spring to promote healthy growth.

An annual dose of slow-release, granular fertilizer can be hugely beneficial to showy, flower-producing shrubs, but don’t fertilize hydrangeas as part of your fall care. You want to encourage your shrub to power down into dormancy, and fertilizer will stimulate late-season growth.

A burst of new vegetative growth in the fall will have a tough time hardening off in time for the cold winter months. Limit fertilizing to early spring through early summer.

Prepare Potted Plants

Three potted plants in black pots display autumn orange-yellow leaves and large inflorescences of burgundy-red and pink flowers in a bright garage for overwintering. — Protect potted plants with insulation for winter survival.

Do you have hydrangeas in containers that are in need of fall and winter care? Depending on the variety and your growing zone, you may need to provide your potted hydrangea with a little extra winter coddling. Without several inches (or feet) of insulating soil above and around them, potted plants are usually not as cold-tolerant as their in-ground equivalents.

There are a few different ways to overwinter a potted hydrangea:

Wrap the container with burlap, garden fleece, or coconut coir. A light layer of insulation works well if your winters are relatively mild or if you have a variety of hydrangea hardy to your growing zone.
Bend wire or mesh fencing into a cylindrical cage that is approximately one foot wider than the hydrangea container. Stuff the cage with straw or dried leaves.
If you live at the far reaches of temperature tolerance for hydrangeas (and you are able to carry the container) just bring them in to a sheltered location that stays roughly 40-45°F (4-7°C) all winter. A garage or barn works well. Think cold, but not frozen.

As soon as the threat of frost has passed in the spring, remove any insulation from the container or move the potted plant back outside.

Prune…Maybe

Close-up of a gardener in a red and blue jacket and orange gloves using pruning shears to cut dry inflorescences from a bush. — Timing is crucial to ensure next year’s blooms thrive.

Pruning seems to cause a bit of a divide amongst gardeners: some folks tend to shy away from snipping any unnecessary branches, while other gardeners always have their pruners at the ready. Pruning certainly reshape, resize, and rejuvenate an older, established hydrangea, BUT pruning done incorrectly or at the wrong time of year can stress a hydrangea and accidentally lead to no blooms the following year.

The only hydrangeas that should see the snips as part of your fall care regime are those varieties that bloom on “new wood”, meaning they won’t start forming flower buds until the following spring. These include, among others, the plants classified under the species H. paniculata and H. arborescens. If you decide to prune one of these, wait until late fall or even winter.

Varieties that bloom on “old wood” have already formed buds for their future flowers. Pruning these hydrangeas now will mean cutting off next year’s flowers.

Blooms on New Wood	Blooms on Old Wood: Do Not Prune in Fall
Smooth hydrangea (Hydrangea arborescens)	Oakleaf hydrangea (Hydrangea quercifolia)
Panicle hydrangea (Hydrangea paniculata)	Bigleaf hydrangea (Hydrangea macrophylla)
	Climbing hydrangea (Hydrangea anomala subsp. petiolaris)

Not sure what kind of hydrangea you have? Or did you just pop a new transplant in the ground? Best to skip the fall pruning. The oh-so-resilient hydrangea will be just fine, and the papery, taupe-colored dried flower heads will add loads of winter interest to your garden.

Check For Diseases

The leaves exhibit dark, water-soaked spots that turn brown, surrounded by yellow halos, giving them a distressed appearance. — Good hygiene practices help prevent disease in plants.

Poor air circulation and persistently damp conditions provide the perfect environment for diseases to form. Hydrangeas are prone to a few diseases, including bacterial leaf spot, botrytis, and alternaria. Most of these bacterial- or fungal-caused diseases can overwinter in the soil and on infected plant material. Clean up fallen leaves and debris surrounding your hydrangea if you suspect it is infected.

Plant More Hydrangeas!

Close-up of a woman's hand in a black glove holding a young rooted seedling with thin vertical stems and oval, jagged green leaves. — Autumn planting fosters healthy roots and reduces competition.

Fall is a great time to plant more plants! Shrubs and perennials respond well to being planted in the fall, and hydrangeas are no exception. Fall means fewer weeds and less insect pressure. Without the demands of colorful, massive flowers, plants can direct energy towards roots and crown development. Still-warm soil and mild air temperatures encourage plenty of root growth.

Be sure to get your new hydrangea in the ground 4-6 weeks before a hard freeze. Hydrangeas prefer a partially shady location with well-drained soil full of organic matter. While you won’t want to add fertilizer to your fall-planted hydrangea, feel free to amend heavy soils with plenty of finished compost prior to planting. This will improve the drainage and texture of the surrounding soil.

The best fall and winter survival tip for hydrangeas? Plant varieties that are hardy to your growing zone! Very broadly speaking, hydrangeas are hardy in zones 3-8, but that window narrows significantly depending on the species. Bigleaf hydrangea (H. macrophylla) are generally only hardy down to zone 5 or 6. Gardeners in chilly zone 3 or 4 may want to stick with a hydrangea variety that’s cold-tolerant.

Key Takeaways

And there you have it! Thankfully, hydrangeas are relatively low-maintenance plants; focus your fall care on soil health and disease minimization. By giving your hydrangeas a little TLC this fall, you’re setting next year’s garden up for tons of those big, billowy blooms we’ve all come to know and love.