PLEASE HELP ME WITH MY BEAUTIFUL HYDRANGEAS

[landm42006]

Hello everyone.
I am new to this forum and so far I have learned many great things and I'm hoping that someone can help me with my hydrangea problem. My 4 year old hydrangeas are planted on the North side of the house and they have been thriving there since I've planted them. As you know, the US has been hit with horrendous heat this year and my area has topped over a 100* more than a few weeks. I water my plants once a week since they are established, but this heat is killing them. Even if I give them some water on the super hot days, they have a hard time perking up. My question is, is can I do anything to keep them from dying in this heat?? I'm almost close to having my husband make some type of contraption to shade them. I am willing to do anything since these are one of my favorites. Thank you for any advice that you can give me and also my poor plants. God bless.

[luis_pr]

Sorry to hear of all the grief you guys are having this year, landm42006. I have never been able to water them only once a week over here (in the summer that is) so feel free to increase the number of waterings per week. Last summer, we had an exceptional drought and high temperatures over here. Temps stayed between 100-110+ from June thru August. Hydrangeas looked bad. There was very little one could do except:

* try to maintain the soil moist as evenly as possible

* give enough water multiple times a week: a newly planted shrub should get about 1 gallon of water per watering

* maintain 3-4" of organic mulch up to the drip line (more if the area is windy)

* do not fertilize (not a good idea when the shrubs are stressed)

* give them at least 1 gallon per watering

* cover them with shade cloth (35%) if you think they are getting too much sun (consider transplanting them if you expect this to happen again)

* if the location is windy, it may promote wilting episodes so try to block the wind somehow and water the night before the Weather Service issues wind warnings

* use the finger method to tell if the soil is drying out: insert a finger into the soil to a depth of 4" and water if the soil feels dry or almost dry. It is best to water the soil (never the leaves) very early in the mornings.

* if you use drip irrigation, you may want to water with a hose (now and then) too as the drip may not be able to reach some of the tiny surface roots.

Last summer, I had one hydrangea whose stems all dried out but I continued watering it since I expected that the roots would be fine. When the temperatures cooled in September, I got a few new stems and the plant looked normal this Spring. So, keep giving a dead looking hydrangea TLC as it may recover by Spring. The dead looking stems can be pruned if they do not leaf out by mid-to-late May 2013.

Were you impacted by the lack of electricity over there?

Luis

[landm42006]

Thank you so much Luis for responding to my question. My husband and I put some shade cloths up today and I also soaked them really good. About 5 hours later I checked on them and they had already started to perk back up. We've had hot summers here before, but this summer takes the cake. We are supposed to get a break in this heat for about a week and I'm sure my garden is looking forward to that, including myself! I have to correct myself, I do water them more than I stated before. That side of the house actually has furry moss growing through the grass which I love. I also didn't know that I wasn't suposed to fertilize them when they are stressed, so thank you again.

As far as the electricity outages, we were lucky. The power did flicker a lot, but thank God we didn't lose it. Although where we lived in Northern VA, by DC, they are STILL out of power. I feel so sorry for those people. Where you live, are you getting blasted by this heat?

Again,thank you so very much for your response. I look forward to meeting many new friends here.

[luis_pr]

Well, no, we are not kind of getting blasted by the same source of your heat ourselves but, we normally have an area of High Pressure that develops over the center of Texas and that causes the higs to spike and little rain to fall. However, this year is a El Nin~o Year and that usually produces more rains than usual... a welcome respite from last summer! Of course, I am sure many people would ask me to put respite in quotes since we have been above 95 since late May. No one plants anything in here during July-August!

[landm42006]

I've always wanted to visit Texas, maybe someday. The upcoming forecast is predicting a front coming over us and hopefully dropping 3-4 inches of much needed rain this week. I hope that this happens because even the weeds are crunchy.

Again, thanks for the tips and I hope to learn more and maybe give advise myself someday.