Category: Garden, Growing Flowers

How to Preserve Hydrangeas as Cut Flowers in Vases

Using hydrangeas as cut flowers in vases can be tricky. This is the procedure I use to keep them alive for a long time.

Flowers outside in the yard will brighten the landscape, but sometimes it’s nice to bring that beauty inside.

Hydrangeas can be used as cut flowers, but keeping them alive in a vase can be tricky. In this post I will tell you how I do it, and include photos of my cut hydrangea flowers in pretty vases.

blue hydrangeas in a glass vase
Light Blue Flowers in a Little Antique Vase

First, I am something of a bud vase collector. I used to be addicted to buying every cute and unusual little vase I came across. Most of them came from yard sales and flea markets that I visited when I lived in central Florida.  I haven’t bought any in many years, but I have my favorites that I pull out each summer to hold the cuttings from my yard.

I like the shape of the little vase pictured above. The taller back is unique and it can hold any flower with a fairly short stem. The downside to this small vase is that the water dries up quickly in the small holder. I must keep an eye on it and refill often.

cuttings limelight
A Hydrangea Bouquet in Fall

This handmade vase (above) was purchased at a school fundraiser event and was made by a local artisan.  I love the unqiue look of pottery, and this vase is also nice and heavy.  These hydrangea blooms were cut late in the season, sometime in late September or October most likely.  It’s my photo, but I don’t remember.  (BlueHyd is one of my blogs).

Hydrangeas can last a long time once they are cut, if you know what to do to keep them looking nice.  In fact they can turn to dried flowers right in the vase!

So, here is the trick to cutting hydrangeas for vases and keeping them alive.  Take a bucket or big vase – filled with hot water (not boiling) – outside with you when cutting the stems.  Cut the stems as long as you can because they will be cut again inside.  As soon as the cut is made add the stem to the hot water.  

Once the bucket is full, come inside and get the vase ready by filling it with cold water.  Cut each stem again, one at a time to the length needed, and put it into the vase of cold water.  This should open up the stems so water can flow to the flower and keep it alive for a very long time.

Limelight hydrangea flowers fall
The Limelight Flower in Fall Contains Pink

If the one of the flower begins to droop, take it out and repeat the procedure by cutting the end, add to hot water for a few minutes, then cut and back to the cold in the vase.  Sometimes this won’t work.  Some flowers are bound to die, but for the most part I have great luck with this procedure.

Also remember to change out the water in the vase each day or so. The best way to do that is to dump part of the water out – never letting the stems come out of the water. Then add fresh cold water to fill it up again.

dsc05461
Pinky Winky Hydrangea Buds in a Copper Vase

Hydrangeas are beautiful as buds, full grown blooms or late summer / fall colors. Anytime is a good time to bring hydrangeas inside to brighten the home.  The Pinky Winky is one of my favorite varieties, and I have a page full of Pinky Winky hydrangea photography taken of the one growing in my yard.

How To Propagate Hydrangeas

stem cutting
Hydrangea cutting with roots and new leaves.

Propagating means starting a new shrub from an existing one. There are a couple of ways you can do this with hydrangea plants.  Hydrangeas grow quite fast, and within a couple of years you will have a nice size addition to your landscape.

Taking stem cuttings, using new growth, sometimes works.  I have not used this method much yet, but while I was planting my new shrubs, a few of the stems broke so I stuck them into a vase of water to see what would happen.  After a few weeks, one of the cuttings has begun to sprout new little leaves and is growing roots – right in the water.  So I plan to get that into a pot and baby it along until Fall when I’ll add it to the yard. (Pictures to come!)

I’ve had success with root layering, and hydrangeas, with their low hanging branches, are perfect for doing this.  In fact if you check around the base of your plants that droop to the ground, you may find that a branch or two is already rooting itself into the soil.  The mophead variety tends to have the low to the ground stems.

I started a new plant by digging up the rooted stem and planting it in another area of the yard one Spring.  I was renting the house, so I don’t know how it’s doing today, but by the time I moved, a beautiful new hydrangea shrub was gracing the front yard at no cost to the homeowner.

Read how I did it, with pictures along the way, at my Wizzley page about Propagating Hydrangeas.

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Vases Filled With Light Blue Hydrangeas

hydrangea flowers in vases
From the Garden

Vases with blue hydrangeas- the Endless Summer variety.  It’s not too hard to fill a vase with hydrangea flowers.  Generally they are huge, and one will fill any kind of vase nicely.  Some of my new plants were flattened by a torrential rainstorm we had just after I planted them and they still bloomed, but the blooms are laying on the ground facing upwards.

Today I decided to cut them and bring some inside, but getting them to look okay in a vase is not easy since the heads are greatly bent sideways.

I brought a vase full of hot water outside with me and plopped the cut stems into it right away.  That keeps the white sap from clogging the stems so the flowers won’t wilt right away.  Than they are added to cold water once I go inside – snipping a bit off the bottom of the stem first.

I dug out my little vases – one is actually an empty Patron tequila bottle- and filled them with the light blue flowers.  I need these photos for my work as I get ready to add new wedding stationery to my BlueHyd store.

Bloom Hydrangeas, Bloom !!!

My hydrangea shrubs are blooming!  The Blushing Bride is mostly white with a slight green tint.  Maybe the pink color will show up later.  That is part of the fun in growing hydrangeas – they tend to change color as they age.  They don’t bloom and die and look hideous, they bloom and gradually dry out on the stem, changing slowing day to day.

My blue hydrangea is full of light blue flowers.  It’s really pretty – even though our torrential rainstorm from a couple weeks ago flattened the stems.  The shrub itself is quite small, but it’s giving me some gorgeous photos and pretty color for the front yard.  Can’t wait to see it next year, when it should be larger and more amazing.

Still to come is the Pinky Winky, which has tiny buds just beginning.  I don’t think the Pee Gee or the Limelight (I have 2) will have flowers this year, but I am happy with what I am seeing.  The white flower on the Blushing Bride is huge.

  • my hydrangeas
    Pinky Winky
  • hydrangeas
    PeeGee
  • white hydrangea flower
    The “Blushing Bride”
  • hydrangea flowers in vases
    Hydrangea cuttings
  • light blue hydrangea flowers
    Coming out light blue
  • hydrangea bouquet image
    Ceramic Tile

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The Pinky Winky is Planted!

pinky winky shrub
Finally – the Pinky Winky is in the ground!

Finally — I got my newly acquired Pinky Winky hydrangea shrub into the ground! The other four hydrangeas were planted a couple of weeks ago and then we had a week of rain. I couldn’t decide where to put the last one – the Pinky Winky – and then I decided it should go out front so it can be seen by passersby. So I began to dig near the edge of the house and I was stopped by a white pipe in the ground. It must be part of the septic system I suppose.

So I filled in the hole and had to find another spot. I decided on the area next to the garage. The Pinky Winky tag tells me that it will be quite large and eventually reach 8 to 10 feet wide and high. It also needs some sun. I also noticed that little buds are forming – which is exciting! I thought I might have to wait until next year to see some blooms, which will be pink and white and elongated.

All hydrangeas – the Limelight, Blushing Bride, Blue, and Pee Gee are doing well.

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Buying Is Fun, Planting – Not So Much!

hydrangeas in pots
Newly purchased hydrangeas in pots

Going to the nursery and buying new plants for the yard is such fun. I love to imagine them each growing large and gloriously enhancing my landscape. But once I’m home and the work of digging and getting them into the ground begins, I’m not having as much fun.

Finding the right spot for them is the first obstacle to overcome. Some of them, in fact most of them, like sun with some shade. The blue “Endless Summer”, white “Blushing Bride“, the “Limelight” (I bought two), and the “Pinky Winky” all need to get some sun, but the “Pee Gee” wants shade.

Also, the full grown size of these plants needs to be considered. Hydrangeas don’t really need to be trimmed, so I want to give them all the space they need to look natural in their settings.

While I am considering all these things and watching my yard for the sunny spots, the plants sit in their pots. Each day they must be watered. Plants in pots dry out very fast. Then a freeze was predicted and I brought them all inside the garage for the night. I wouldn’t have worried had they been planted in the ground, but being in pots makes them more fragile.

I know they want out! And they will do some nice growing once they are in the ground. This weekend the weather in my part of New England will be fabulous, so I plan to get the planting underway.  After all, adding perennials to the yard is a wonderful and lasting gift you can give yourself.

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