My Hydrangea is Looking Sad

[PookieMichelle]

I've had these 2 hydrangeas for a little over a month...they were looking fantastic for the most part...now they look really really sad! I am pretty sure I fouled up last week and watered the plant from overhead, lots of water onto the foliage...So I'm just not sure what to do now. I don't want to just throw it away, but the blooms look terrible with the rust/orange-ish spots!

Thanks in advance,

[PookieMichelle]

[img]https://i40.photobucket.com/albums/e246/Michelle62072/photo1.jpg[/img]

[aqh88]

If you bought them in full bloom hydrangeas don't have a long blooming lifespan. They will go brown and dry up quickly. Then they are just a green plant until they decide to go dormant and wait for cold weather. They have to be chilled to bloom again and the ones in full bloom in stores have been forced. It's best to buy the one that hasn't bloomed yet and I've been waiting for mine to finish going dormant for months so I can divide it and throw it in cold storage to try to force it to bloom again later this year. It just keeps hanging in there with droopy green leaves waiting out the summer apparently. This fall when the bulbs are sold I'm thinking planting one every 2 weeks indoors so I will have hydrangeas blooming in the house for months because one will be ready to bloom as one is ready to die off.

[luis_pr]

Blooms can suffer when they get wet and so can the leaves. Here in the DFW Area they also suffer if they get too much sun. I would prune the blooms and dispose them in the trash. Do not throw them in a compost pile because they may have powdery mildew fungus or another type of fungal infection. That is what the spots and odd colors are.

Going forward, water the plants by watering the soil (never the leaves or blooms) early in the morning instead. About a gallon of water per watering should be enough. Make sure that the shrubs get shade starting around 11am or 12pm-ish. And monitor the leaves to see if the overhead watering of leaves ends up causing a fungal infection to them as well.

If this is reblooming hydrangea, you should have new bloomage later on. Normally about a month or so later. But here it is hard to predict because in about a month our temps get quite high and hydrangeas then limit/reduce blooming activities in the height of summer.

Luis

[callamisfit]

just bought it a couple of weeks ago the leaves r drying up still has one bloom on it I plucked off the other two since they were dead have never grown one before and any help would b appeciated thanks