Leaf senescence is a genetically controlled dismantling programme that enables plants to efficiently remobilise nutrients to new growing sinks. It involves substantial metabolic reprogramming whose timing is affected by developmental and environmental signals. Plant hormones have long been known to affect the timing of leaf senescence, but they also affect plant development and stress responses. It has therefore been difficult to tease apart how the different hormones regulate the onset and progression of leaf senescence, i.e., whether they directly affect leaf senescence or affect it indirectly by altering the developmental programme or by altering plants’ response to stress. Here we review research on hormonal regulation of leaf senescence and propose that hormones affect senescence through differential responses to developmental and environmental signals. We suggest that leaf senescence strictly depends on developmental changes, after which senescence can be induced, depending on the type of hormonal and environmental cues.