The Gordon House (Frank Lloyd Wright)

September 12, 2025

Pruning 'Summer Crush' Hydrangea in Late Summer or Early Fall

Hydrangea 'Summer Crush' in June... in September Pruning can be a complicated project, especially when it comes to hydrangeas (I can think of one more plant that causes pruning headaches - clematis). That said, if you grow many hydrangeas, especially different types, once you get the hang of it, it begins to come naturally. I used to rarely prune my hydrangeas because I had more space. Now, with a smaller garden, I'm finding that some are getting too large for comfort. Case in point, 'Summer Crush'. It is actually not a huge hydrangea, but it does get larger than advertised - about 5 feet in my garden (the tag said 3-4'). 'Summer Crush' is in the 'Endless Summer' line of hydrangeas and they are among the easier to prune. This is because they bloom on both old and new wood. Therefore, no matter when you prune, you should get blooms. It is the older hydrangeas, the ones that only bloom on old wood, that you have to be careful with. I would recomm...

Just after you enter the gates of The Oregon Garden, the first thing you see on your left is The Gordon House, one of the last Usonian houses designed by Frank Lloyd Wright. It was the only house designed by Wright in the state of Oregon. It was commissioned by Conrad and Evelyn Gordon in Wilsonville, Oregon. Wright designed the house in 1957 and it was built in 1964 after his death. The Gordons lived in the house for the remainder of their lives and it was then donated to the Frank Lloyd Wright Convervancy, who meticulously dismantled the house piece by piece and relocated it to The Oregon Garden location after it was donated by the Gordon heirs.

There is also a Frank Lloyd Wright home less than one mile from our former home in Florence, Alabama. I visited it twice and wrote about it in this post from 2012.