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Help!

I have recently bought a house with what seemed were healthy hydrangeas. The plants must be about 5 years old and until 10 days ago, my hydrangea plants were doing great. They are in a part shade spot. I live in Missouri, so things stay pretty moist. One Hydrangea plant is doing great. But the one right next to it is dying quickly. HELP.

What is going on? I have included a picture and thought maybe someone could diagnose. Do I need more acid? Less acid? More water?

[img]https://4.bp.blogspot.com/_hpUr3xFYicc/TDvp2oBkqpI/AAAAAAAAAU8/nalKwTKGMnE/s1600/hyd.jpg[/img]

Kind of odd that half the plant looks fine and the other half is frying. The rough looking leaves could be a result of several different things like possibly too much direct sun, radiating heat off the house, herbicide drift?? It appears to be just pure and simple leaf scorch which looks bad but really only hurts the plant aesthetically.
Just be sure to not water like crazy as this can often times make problems worse by drowning the plant. Big leaf hydrangeas don't like continuously saturated soils.....you're plant will need a period of drying out between waterings. Hope this helps a bit.

Good info. Thank you for your thoughts. Interesting to think about the heat off the house...that could definitely be it. Homedepot told me to buy this salt to change the acidity of the soil. Do you think that will solve the problem...or should I just take that back and get my $10 back?

Salt by itself will not change the acidity so I would replace the salt with either greensand, iron-chelated liquid compounds, garden Sulphur, a/s, etc.

I wouldn't put anything on a plant showing this kind of distress. The main reason to change the acidity would be to alter the blossom color, and chances are it won't bloom this year anyway.
Am I understanding that the picture is of two individual plants? If so, they seem too close to each other. Think about relocating one or both (they also look like they're too close to the house, but that could be just the angle from which the photo was taken.)
Finally, if the plants are indeed five years old, they look very small. Perhaps there's an underlying problem with them? Again, maybe they need to be relocated to a more suitable spot.

The salts they sold you were probably just aluminum sulfate or lime based granules that alter the acidity in the soil to change bloom color..... which has nothing to do with the leaf scorch that is taking place. Not saying that the granules won't come in handy in the future if you want to change the bloom color....they just won't do anything to fix the present issue.

The amendments will not correct the problem but may still be necessary in alkaline areas. For example, I have to apply them in Spring and mid summer.

This is actually just one plant. One stalk is doing well and the other not well at all. Good to know on the acidity. The plant probably is in enough shock that I will hold on the salts. The other plant that is thriving is not shown in the picture and is thriving. It is only 4 feet over in the same kind of area. Still not sure what to do here. Concensus is to move the plant or just leave it and see what happens?

Regardless of their size or current age, I would recommend separating them. While we do not know the name of this variety, most hydrangeas can get large and these two shrubs are just too close to each other. If you picture them when they are 4' H by 4' W, you can see what I am trying to say.

Because of the original problems with the leaves, I suggest you minimize watering of leaves or stop it (not much you can do if the sprinkler gets them wet). Instead, water the soil. If the sprinkler gets the shrubs wet, schedule the watering time to very early in the morning. This will reduce the chance of fungal diseases on the leaves.