My hydrangea bush is wilting bad

[NewGardenTalent]

Hi all,
I have a hydrangea in my front yard. The town tree is blocking out many hours of morning hour son. Now my hydrangea bush is wilting and drooping. I am watering it but it only helps so much. It will get some direct son from 12:45 to around mid afternoon. Is this happening due to lack of direct son light? It was blooming beautifully early in the spring. However, after a hard few days of rain it drooped and it never looked the same. I did take leaves away from it's base and put some fertilizer there. I am not sure if it helped.

[Northernfox]

is it hot there?

you might be over watering them.

don't worry about the shade they are a good shade plant. mine get limited direct sun and do just fine. in fact unless we are in drought conditions I don't water them at all.

[southjersey]

We've had a heat wave the last couple of weeks here in New Jersey, so I would guess it is that more than anything. Mine don't look much better, too, after all the rain we've also had beating them down. I doubt it is the sun to blame, as hydrangeas thrive in shade. Too much sun and they tend to wilt.

[NewGardenTalent]

I have been watering them like crazy. I'm probably watering them too much. Yes, it's been very hot.
I'm relieved they don't need that much sun.
Thanks.

[luis_pr]

Hydrangeas are understory shrubs who will benefit from afternoon shade during the hottest months of the year. When initially planted, when the weather is windy or when the weather is hot, the leaves loose moisture faster than the roots can absorb moisture. The leaves then wilt, which looks awful at times but it reduces the amount of leaf surface area being "baked" by the sun.

I would recommend transplanting them to a shadier spot so the plants suffer less and you water less. You can even put them in full shade as long as the shade is "bright shade" not a dense shade.

But there are times when you give them afternoon shade and still cannot help seeing them like that. Some of my hydrangeas get morning sun until 11am but they still wilt in the afternoon during the summer... because we get a lot of 100-110 degree days for weeks in a row. Luckily, as long as the soil is moist, they recover by themselves by the next morning.

[NewGardenTalent]

That's good to know. They are in "bright shade." I never heard of that term before. I'm going to learn a lot here.

[NewGardenTalent]

Help! By hydrangea bush is just looking worse and worse as if it's dying. Meanwhile, the hydrangea bush across the street looks perfect! I watered it this morning. The gardener said I might have been watering it too much. I don't know. The hydrangea bush across the street does not have a tree over it. But you all said it doesn't need all that much sun.

[rainbowgardener]

My hydrangea is under a big tree and gets essentially no direct sun and it is doing fine. With all the rain we have had (until recently), if you were watering at all, you were probably over-watering. I have not watered my hydrangea this season yet, the rain has been plenty.

[luis_pr]

Can you elaborate on what do you see when you say that the plant is "looking worse and worse as if it's dying"?

[NewGardenTalent]

Can you elaborate on what do you see when you say that the plant is "looking worse and worse as if it's dying"?

The flowers are getting very dry and brittle. I have been watering them a lot. I did put a bit fertilizer today.

[rainbowgardener]

The flowers getting dry is a natural process. Flowers bud, bloom, and then die. The difference with hydrangeas is that while most plants drop dying flower petals, hydrangeas hold on to them, all through the winter. Many people leave the dried hydrangea flowers on the plants for winter interest.

Deadheading (removing spent flowers) does not prolong flower production as it does in many other plants. The hydrangea buds are set the previous year. When those buds from last year have flowered, then it is done flowering for the year, regardless of what you do at that point.

[NewGardenTalent]

What is really bothering me is the green leaves are starting to die. Perhaps something serious is wrong.
And like I said, the person across the street has a hydrangea bush that is thriving.
How can I find out if the hydrangea bush is getting sick by some sort of bug or something?

[luis_pr]

Hello, NewGardenTalent. Regarding the dry and brittle blooms, strong and-or constant winds on top of high temps and sun can "blow dry them". Protection from the sun & wind plus constantly moist -not wet- soil will help. However, at some point, the plant may decide to abort the blooms. You can then deadhead them or keep them thru winter for winter interest.

I am not sure how to interpret the comment about 'the leaves are starting to die'. Do you mean the leaves are wilting? Or are they changing colors? if so, what color? Yellow? Brown? Purple? Other colors? Or can you post a more recent picture? A picture of the shrub and one of the affected leaves will help.

I would not fertilize the hydrangea any more. Stressed plants should not be fed and hydrangeas will do fine with a single annual Spring fertilizer application. You can give it a cup of cottonseed meal, compost, composted manure or you can use a general purpose, slow-release, chemical fertilizer like Osmocote 10-10-10 according to label directions.

Luis

[NewGardenTalent]

Here are photos of my hydrangea bush and the problem I am having with it. Please keep in mind the person across the street has a hydrangea plant that is totally vibrant and healthy.

My neighbor took a look at them and said I might have watered the flowers and burnt them due to the heat.
She also said they look like the ones that grow back over the summer. I forgot the name of them. How can I find out if they are the ones that grow back? Should I clip the flower buds now? What was the name of them again? Sorry for so many questions. LOL

[luis_pr]

The browning of the blooms occurs with any of these scenarios:

* the plant aborts the blooms because it is too hot or it has too little soil moisture. That is why understory shrubs like hydrangeas and azaleas do better when given afternoon shade. The leaves and-or blooms suffer otherwise. Flower buds (if any were to be present) are the first thing to go when the plant cannot absorb enough moisture. Bloomage suffers next, followed by leaves that wilt or begin to brown out.

A plant of the size shown may need about 1 to 2 gallons of water per watering. Give it water early in the mornings. Water the soil; do not water the blooms or the leaves. Mulch will prevent the moisture from evaporating quickly and forcing you to water often. Maintain 3-4" of the stuff year around as best as you can.

Here in Texas, I get this problem with some hydrangeas that have gotten too large and their blooms can now reach/touch sunlight. By July, I start seeing browning of their blooms too since we hit 90s by May and the 100s by June-July.

* the plant has developed a fungal disease called Botrytis Blight. BB is not likely in your case because BB requires cloudy, humid, rainy weather and your comments indicate the opposite. The infection also causes a mold that gives the blooms a look as if they were wet. Cleary's 3336 or fungicides with active ingredients Iprodione or Thiophanate-methyl should be used/sprayed according to the label directions. Also called grey mold; the mold is absent at the beginning of the disease. See pictures on the link below.

https://urbanext.illinois.edu/hortanswer ... hogenID=33

* hydrangea blooms naturally fade and end up browning but this usually requires a color transition to brown that involves one or two more colors. Seeing a direct transition from blue to brown indicates that this is not a fading of the blooms.

The leaf sample looks as if it has either salt stress or fertilizer burn (and that can also be caused by too much fertilizer). Plants that are stressed should not be given fertilizers as this results in the accumulation of salts that give the leaves a look as if they had been burned. Sometimes they appear dark brown or grey. Watering can help address that. You can confirm too much fertilizer issues with a soil kit that checks for too much/little nitrogen/phosphorus/potassium or by requesting a formal soil test.

How that happens: the plant gets dehydrated because high pottasium levels have a high salt content, which soaks up the soil moisture, giving the leaves a "burned" look. Watering with amounts larger than normal can help; just compensate by waiting to water again until the soil feels almost dry when you insert a finger to a depth of 4".

Normal fertilizer suggestions: same things I already mentioned above... apply 1 cup or so of cottonseed meal, compost or composted manue in the Spring. That is all for the whole year. You can also use a general purpose, slow release, chemical fertilizer like Osmocote 10-10-10. If you want to add more stuff at other times, you can use coffee grounds, liquid seaweed or liquid fish but stop by the end of June.

Normal watering suggestions: Give the plant between 1-2 gallons of water during the worst of the summer months if you do not want to transplant it (you may still have to if the issue reoccurs every summer). Use the finger method daily for 2-3 weeks to control waterings: insert a finger into the soil to a depth of 4" early in the mornings and water if the soil feels dry or almost dry. Every time that you water, make a note in a wall calendar and after 2-3 weeks, check to see approximately how often you were watering (every 3 days? every 4 days? etc?). Then set the sprinkler or drip irrigation to water 1-2 gallons every "x" days. If the temperatures change up/down by 10-15 degrees and stay there, use the finger method again. Maintain 3-4" of mulch up to the drip line (further away from the crown if the site is windy). Check mulch levels throughout the year (Spring and Fall are good times). Prevent overwatering as this can cause root rot.

Reblooming hydrangeas like the Endless Summer and Together & Ever Series will probably have yet one more flush of blooms if the weather conditions are right. Not sure if that applies in NJ though.

You can deahead the browned out blooms (do not prune the stem). If you do not know the difference between pruning and deadheading, see the link below. Go to the section titled "PRUNING: METHOD ONE" and then find the section titled "REMOVING OLD BLOOMS"

https://www.hydrangeashydrangeas.com/pruning.html

It is difficult to identify rebloomers as hydrangea blooms are so darn similar. Just do the obvious... observe if the plant has a new flush of blooms after its initial flush in Spring.

I have a non-rebloomer that, in some years, has bloomed again when the temperatures drop from the 100s in the Fall. But this is a limited flush consisting of 1-2 new blooms only so, I assume the plant is just celebrating the arrival of Fall.

Luis

[NewGardenTalent]

Luis thanks for this excellent info.
The leave look better since the cooler weather came. I cut off the dead blooms because they were totally dead.
I did see little white things on the leaves inside the plant. Might this be some sort of fungus?

[luis_pr]

White "things"? Hmm, a cottony maple leaf scale -a pest- can be observed in the northeast states around July. They are related to mealy bugs.

And powdery mildew -a fungus- can form round or roundish blotches on the top of the leaves (they are usually greyish but I can see how some people would call them white too).

I guess another picture would help see what you are referring to. Sorry to ask for pictures so much!

[NewGardenTalent]

White "things"? Hmm, a cottony maple leaf scale -a pest- can be observed in the northeast states around July. They are related to mealy bugs.

And powdery mildew -a fungus- can form round or roundish blotches on the top of the leaves (they are usually greyish but I can see how some people would call them white too).

I guess another picture would help see what you are referring to. Sorry to ask for pictures so much!

I took several good photos of these little white things on the leaves only to realize my dying phone did not take the photos. Now the leaves are gone. I'm so frustrated.

[NewGardenTalent]

I did take one more. Please note: The little white thing in this photo had dozens and dozens more in the other photos I took that did not come out.

[candin]

Hydrangeas are understory shrubs who will benefit from afternoon shade during the hottest months of the year. When initially planted, when the weather is windy or when the weather is hot, the leaves loose moisture faster than the roots can absorb moisture. The leaves then wilt, which looks awful at times but it reduces the amount of leaf surface area being "baked" by the sun.

I would recommend transplanting them to a shadier spot so the plants suffer less and you water less. You can even put them in full shade as long as the shade is "bright shade" not a dense shade.

But there are times when you give them afternoon shade and still cannot help seeing them like that. Some of my hydrangeas get morning sun until 11am but they still wilt in the afternoon during the summer... because we get a lot of 100-110 degree days for weeks in a row. Luckily, as long as the soil is moist, they recover by themselves by the next morning.

I planted limelight hydrangeas about two weeks ago. They have beautiful big blooms and have done well. They got a few days of solid rain after we first planted them. (We live in SC- been a wet summer) It has been dry this week. The base leaves on them are yellow and the green ones are looking pretty shriveled and droopy by the afternoon. They get morning shade and afternoon sun. I read that yellow leaves mean too much water and that shriveled green leaves mean they are dry so I don't know what to do since my plants have both. Any suggestions?

[luis_pr]

The plants are going thru transplant shock, are heat stressed due to the being planted in the middle of the summer and may be getting to much afternoon sun so try to keep them very well mulched (3-4" of mulch up to the drip line year around) and maintain the soil as evenly moist as you can: no periods of dry soil followed by moist soil, back to dry soil...

Some yellowing of leaves -if you mean all of the leaf is yellowing- could be heat stress.

They will get droopy during the worst days of their first few summers but, if they are healthy and the soil is moist, they should recover on their own by nightfall or by the next morning. Give each plant between 1-2 gallons of water per watering in the summer. Water the soil early in the morning from the root ball outwards (never water the leaves so it does not develop fungal leaf infections like powdery mildew). Most of the root system is currently near the root ball so it is important to start watering from there outwards.

They should stop being sensitive to these conditions in the future but, during the first few summers, they may do that. Once they become established, you will only notice it during the worst summer days. Heat and lots of wind will trigger these episodes.

If you ever see a really bad episode, give them about 1/2 gallon of water immediately. But in general and if just slightly droopy/wilted, you will not need to do anything provided that the soil is moist.

The wilting of leaves ia defense mechanism that reduces the amount of surface area affected by hot sun strking the leaves or winds drying the leaves. And like I said before, the leaves should recover on their own overnight.

Because the leaves cannot stand exposure to afternoon sun in the south, these shrubs need morning sun and afternoon shade. When exposed to too much sun, the leaves in direct contact with the sun turn all yellow, including the leaf veins. That happened to me once when hail broke off a piece of a Crape Myrtle that provided shade to a hydrangea. You can then transplant them to a more shaded location, provide temporary shade or erect something to provide the needed shade.

Do not fertilize them this year since the potting medium probably already contains those round fertilizer pellets (we should not fertilize a stressed plant either). You can fertilize with 1/2 cup to 1 cup of compost, composted manure or cottonseed meal. You can also a 10-10-10 chemical fertilizer that is general-purpose slow-release, like some versions of Osmocote.

Water them shrubs when a finger inserted into the soil to a depth of 4" feels almost dry or dry. A newly planted shrub can make do with 1 gallon of water per watering in Spring/Fall/Winter but may need more in the Summer. It will help you prevent from overwatering. Water once every two weeks if your winter is dry.