Not me, that’s for sure.
I’m known, in some circles, as somewhat of a hydrangea expert.
This fallacy has propagated itself based solely on my ability to grow big-ass Annabelle Hydrangeas. For anyone who knows anything about gardening, or hydrangeas specifically, it’s pretty funny. To my knowledge, it requires nothing more than buying the right kind, planting in a spot that receives at least some sun and cutting back in the fall so that the plants don’t get overgrown and floppy.
That’s it.
Suffice to say, I’m not a hydrangea expert.
In fact, my very own annabelle hydrangeas were all floppy and overgrown this summer. True, they had enormous chartreuse green heads on them, but they were all bent over and infringing on the path that goes around the barn, making travel in that sector precarious at best.
“What went wrong,” I wondered many times over the summer?
Well now I know. Yesterday, after finishing my work-work as much as humanly possible on such a gorgeous day, I went outside to cut them back and salvage any stems that hadn’t been turned brown by the first freeze. And I learned an amazing thing: my hydrangeas weren’t necessarily more floppy than normal. There were whole new plants everywhere, many growing so close to the edge of the retaining blocks that they had nowhere to go but to flop over the path.
As I set about to cutting them back — and this year I cut stems right to the ground, rather than leaving 6-8″ as I did last year, since I now think the shorter the stems the better — I vowed to ruthlessly cull all the “volunteer” shrubs.
In my wrath at the difficulty of of task, amidst loud groans and expletives (really, it’s a good thing I don’t have neighbors) I pulled back the rocks and landscape fabric to find roots everywhere!
Honestly, the closest comparison I have to what I saw was the matt-like roots of my “non-invasive” mint. And at each end of these lateral roots were little shoots of new hydrangea plants!
Who knew?
I hacked away mercilessly at the roots and the shoots as best I could without completely destroying the fabric. I think I failed in that attempt, but at least for now, all evidence of new plants are gone.
Of course, the trick going forward is to actually remember today’s discovery. Because I can totally picture myself next spring, in the wonder and joy of new growth, letting the volunteer plants go with the idea that I will dig them up and transplant them somewhere else. In fact, I can almost predict with certainty that that is what will happen. I can also predict with certainty that I will never transplant them and that I will ‘discover’ this whole scenario again next year with only a faint dawning in the back of my mind that perhaps I already knew this.
In fact, as I write this, that very thing is happening right now.
Well, chalk it up to another reason for writing this blog. It is rapidly becoming my memory, bringing a whole new meaning to the phrase “Google it.” Because really, how awesome would it be to Google your memory? If I keep this stupid thing up, that is just what I will be able to do.
Kelly says
Maybe I shouldn’t say this “out loud” but I wish MY hydrangeas would send out volunteers. 😉 I wonder if it’s that particular kind. I don’t think any of ours are the Annabelle variety. Regardless, I love them and think all varieties are just gorgeous-flopping over the edge of the retaining blocks and all!
Jenmenke says
ha! yes, it’s true: becarefulwhatyouwishfor! (should be a word, so I made it one). I finally have other kinds of hydrangeas and I definitely don’t think the others (pee gees, etc) are the same at all. But what do I know?
Jenmenke says
by the way Kelly, I do believe you are my very FIRST PICTURE COMMENTER! So exciting to see a another face besides mine!
Greg Elder says
Jen – not a facebook user really at all but follow your posts, get a real kick of your stuff and laugh my $%& off at most it. Sounds like you’re well and living a similarly crazy life.
Best –
Jenmenke says
Greg! no way! So fun to hear of all these crazies taking the time to read my stupid posts. honored. I only go on FB to link to here. It’s a black hole of nothingness..
It’s been a long, long time hasn’t it? See Jeff now and then but not for a couple years now. Say hello to your family for me!
Nat Alea from OK (soon to be MT) says
Love your hydrangeas and they’re beautiful! Be happy you have such a great green thumb.
admin says
I suppose… But really. It looked so OUT OF CONTROL! (and drove Dave batty.)
Nancy Clark says
I moved into an old house with old hydrangeas…the hydrangeas have in the last 12 years fought a battle with me that may never be over. They are lovely for sure…but they want to take over the world. They just keep spreading…further and further…the back clump was maybe 12 feet by feet…even with my efforts at reduction each year…the clump now runs the full width of the house (33 feet) at the back and into my neighbours yard and has more than doubled in width to the point it is encroaching on my vegetable garden. If someone could ever offer me a solution to the constant spread, i would be eternally grateful…i would like room for other shrubs and plants and not have to dig it all up because hydrangea keeps growing up into the rest of my garden, lawn, foundation and patio. I found your blog via google and enjoyed it very much…but wish you had truly been the solution to my problem…unless you want to come & help me dig?????
Janet says
Do all varieties of hydrangeas spread this way? I’d like the get the blue or pink variety.
Jenmenke says
I don’t think so. These are particularly… robust. The pink and blue ones are a different type and not quite as hardy here in MN. Where are you?
Krista says
HA! I set out with this on Google: How-to-stop-hydrangea-from-spreading-throughout-yard. And here I landed. 🙂 We moved into a house last fall with some very old and lovely gardens that had been neglected for several years. The best we could do last fall (with a four-year-old son and a four-month-old daughter) was remove trailer after trailerful of weeds that were choking out what we suspected were perennials, and wait until spring. I was pleased to see some really nice color in our yard and several masses of floppy, moppy hydrangea. I’ve given away buckets of “volunteers” and still they thrive. Robust to say the least. I’ll be cutting them back again this fall, but I suspect that they will rule our yard again. At least until the kids are old enough to help prune.
Elaine Kessler says
I love my hydrangeas, lace caps and all. But they have grown as high as a fence (8′)and are now encroaching into our gazebo, our pool area and over the low stone wall towards our grass. they are breath taking, but sometimes I think they have become “Audry 2” from the Little Shop of Horrors! Can anything be done?
admin says
Hydrangeas, hydrangeas. I haven’t been successful either. Thought I was, but then, they all grew to the wall and flopped over the path the very next year. They are a pretty nuisance at least!
Tere says
hi all, I’ve wanted hydrangeas forever, but my husband’s family had the spreading kind, and he’s rejected my requests. in Montana, they have to be hardy, even north or east plantings. but, if anyone can give me hints as to what species will NOT spread, I’d be grateful. thanks and enjoy spring all of you.
Pat Brown says
Hi does anyone know how many climbing hydrangeas there are, and what
the names are.
admin says
I doubt you will get an answer here, but maybe try googling it. I had climbing hydrangeas in my previous house and they did not make it through the winters in MN. Not sure where you live, but good luck!
Jack Montague says
A few y ears ago I bought some hydranges from Lowe’s and put them in my garden. They didn’t do too well but a year later some sprouted up from the parent plant but with different flowers. Then all Hell broke loose, they sent runners out through my gardens and I can’t get rid of them. popping up in my other gardens, in my lawns, 100 feet away from the planted spot and I can’t get rid of them!!!!
Margaret Anderson says
March 28, 2016 I Want out today to check out what I can do to restrict my hydrangeas from running around anymore this next season. They were planted in late 2001, north side, and have been big and beautiful since their first blooming. However, they are volunteering more each year. I live in SD and winters can be very cold but that has not been a problem. Nice to hear others have problems too. I have some mobility problems now. Age. But still enjoy my flowers. Any ideas for the hydrangeas would be welcome.
Lynn says
I’m in the Hudson Valley in NY and my oak leaf hydrangeas are overtaking my garden as well. Do I cut those ‘runners’ off? I’m about to re-apply garden sheeting and mulch and wonder if I should just cover all those root looking shoots or cut them?
jenmenke says
You know Lynn, I’m not 100% sure. I cut them off, and it worked for a couple years, but I’m right back where I was when I wrote this post. Those runners just run until they can find the light of day and then pop up out of the ground. I guess there are worse things than this, but you just have to stay on top of them!
John says
I live in North Central Florida, on a top of an old rocky ridge which once was a river down below, the beauty of my landscape is only in its natural state, beholden to me at one point someone before me planted a violet colored Hydrangea , Iv noticed those Hydrangeas taking over perhaps a 25′ area along the rocky outcroppings and mixing with the natural beauty of the ferns and the limestone rocks.
I started pulling and just cutting some of them out about 10 years ago and as years gone by it seems to me the darn Hydrangeas have encroached a swath about 300′ by 40′ wide, they don’t grow in clumps, they just grow side by side stalks with some of the tallest ones about 4′ tall, I need to get working on that area tomorrow, Lately It seems like I have got a handle on some of the areas, as the swath seems to have been separated here and there. I’m starting to be a little more careful as the way I pull the Hydrangeas up and out of the ground as to get as much of the root as possible.,
Iv been to a few friends homes in town and they also have scattered about Hydrangeas in there yard. So I say yes, Hydrangeas are invasive , they don’t belong over here in a natural forest.
William Burton says
My daughter bought a 1910 house in Minneapolis last summer with what I call a “feral hydrangea patch.” I believe they are Annabelle hydrangeas (which really are my favorite) but they’ve been neglected probably for many decades. They are planted in a space between the house and a sidewalk but have spread under the sidewalk, lifting sections of sidewalk in the process (and making the sidewalk disappear). I’m glad I found this thread because nowhere else does anyone talk about rampant hydrangea roots and misery loves company. I’ve been brutally digging up roots, some of them 2″ in diameter (any bigger and I think I could make lumber out of them and manufacture hydrangea furniture). I have no illusions that they are under control now, but at least the sidewalk is clear. I’ve transplanted 15 root clumps and I’m waiting to see how many survive. I expect that constant vigilance and clipping of new shoots will be the only way to deal with them in the future. They sure are pretty though.
AmyR says
The Annabelles seem to be an issue – my oakleaf hydrangea is moderately aggressive at sprawling, but the Annabelles – particularly the white ones – have become pests. It’s fun to have some new plants to share or move to other areas, but these are just sending roots out all over and have killed a few other plants already.
jenmenke says
I hear you, AmyR and William B! I’m digging some out again this year. Frustrating, because I do love the blooms.
BChase says
I also found this site by googling spreading hydrangeas. Wow! Who knew! I just discovered that the hydrangea that I brought home from my husbands grandmothers house, which I was pretty sure was an Annabelle, has been spreading and taking over my garden! Glad to know I’m not alone! LOL Next spring, I will have to deal with this in a major way. Had meant to do it this year, but since we’ve had a 4 week (so far) drought, and I’ll have to move some plants out of the way to work, I think it will be best for the health of my plants not to dig them up right now. Thanks so much for the info 🙂
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Sumitra Kurkal says
Finally a site that talks about Annabelle Hydrangea taking over!!
The first year I was sooooo happy that the little sticks that i received filled out so nicely. The next year they were full 5 feet or so tall full of lime green tops which never all bloomed to white. The 3rd year when I went to cut them back, I saw the whole area filled out with “volunteers” and ever since then I have never been able to pull them out. Seems like for every one that I pull out I get 3 more in its place. So beware where you plant this variety. Just for information I am in zone 7.
Webster says
I just discovered what I think might be volunteer oak leaf hydrangeas coming up. They’re pretty small, so not sure yet. Am going to keep an eye on them. In central Ca. zone 9.
Kathleen Smith says
Does anyone use an environmentally safe spray to kill the shoots from the invading hydrangeas? We have a huge problem invading from a neighbors yard to the point where they are strangling a hedge. I kept pulling them out of the bushes but that just encouraged them. I have even contemplated pulling out each bush and picking out the invasive plants and replanting them with landscape fabric around each bush….Lots of work and I am not sure it will even work. Any effective spray out there?
Lauren says
Is this blog still active?
I dug up a long forgotten hydrangea from my grandmother’s garden in 1985. It was just one scraggly stem at that time. I planted in the years of my new home and tended to it lovingly. My neighbor gave it a crew cut a few times when turning his mower. Turned out that was the best thing for it because it grew back with multiple shoots after each haircut. Before long I had a gigantic circle of beautiful hydrangea and I divided off small sections transplanting them to the front of the house. They were really beautiful.
Then in 2006, I moved and brought several hydrangeas with me, have since given some to my sons and moved some to our summer place.
It should have dawned on me that they have a somewhat invasive component but my love for them prevents assigning them any negative attributes. May my grandmother live on in her beautiful hydrangeas.
Jenmenke says
Well, it’s not “active” but I keep noodling the idea of writing again…. 🙂 I, too, love them. but it has become quite the battle. Our house is actually on the market and I’m sure I’m going to miss the battle. I think I’ll miss the peegee’s more though. They need aggressive pruning each year, but at least they don’t take down rock walls with their roots!
Kathryn says
We just moved into a house and it has a massive group of hydrangeas with the white tops so tall and spanning twenty or thirty feet along one side of the house. I didn’t even realize until we had been here a week that they pushed aside the downspout on the north corner of the house. A tree recently lost a branch and took out several feet of the growth, but it just made me realize just how much the plants have taken over the side of the house almost to the property line. I googled them and found myself here. Sounds like I have a another challenge with my new house! Thank you for posting! I had no idea about their invasive nature.
Sally Hester says
Thanks to everyone for all of the helpful info! We’ve been in our house for a little over a year, and I’ve noticed the 5 oak leaf hydrangea shrubs I pruned once growing new “baby” plants. I’ve suspected this was a sign that they’re going to be invasive. I’m in zone 7 and they seem to like our climate. I’ll be sure to get out soon and begin to deal with the “babies.”
Slavka says
I’m in the process of pulling them out. The roots are ridiculous and I’m exhausted. Too much for a senior! A few years ago my neighbour gave me a few of these but said he didn’t know the name. I should have asked him why he was yanking them out of his yard! Next time due diligent is in order. Back to work; oh my poor back …
Joseph says
This article is misinforming, but it is misinformation that trips up many gardeners. The Annabelle Hydrangea’s botanical name is Hydrangea arborescens ‘Annabelle’. This species, and thus this cultivar, is a NATIVE species. While native species can be aggressive, they can NEVER be invasive. Only plants that are NOT native can be invasive. So if you find your Hydrangea macrophylla or paniculata spreading, then start to worry … especially if you want butterflies and birds in your yard. Basically, native species that spread more than wanted by a gardener are called aggressive, and may be helpful or problematic based on the situation. But they can never be invasive because it is impossible for them to harm our ecosystem. Foreign, non-native plants on the other hand can harm our ecosystem if they spread beyond the area of specific cultivation, and are then termed invasive to indicate their danger. Using botanical names in this instance is essential. Even then though, information can be confusing. The foreign hydrangeas are considered invasive in Portugal but not here. So someone doesn’t have the correct information.
Paula says
Yes. I too have an Anabelle hydrangrea which I planted 4 years ago around our newly constructed house. It has thrived and this year I discocered runners. I am afraid I have to use the ‘R” word (as in Roundup) to stop these roots. If it kills the parent plant, I will replace it with something less agressive. I am 75 years old and while I am in relatively good shape, I lack the stamina for an ongoing battle with roots like that. I have recently planted several other varieties of hydrangea. I am hoping they will be noninvasive.