Urbansage_gardener
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Confused hydrangea lol

I had my hydrangea for a year really hasn't grown much but have had bloom age in the past but it was only a bud at a time now she going through something now and I'm wonder what can I do to restore her to a better her I really those plant so any tips will
Help.....

FYI I put an olla next it and by a strawberry patch but it's not that close to it separated by a few feet...
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luis_pr
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Where is this shrub planted (where are you?)?

Was the picture taken recently?

Urbansage_gardener
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In the upper left corner of the flower bed

I live in Los Angeles

And yes this pic is recent

luis_pr
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Oh, ok. Explains why there are some leaf out. I was thinking it was in Australia!!!!

Hydrangeas sometimes grow poorly in the first or first 2 years but should hopefully kick in by the third year. Although I did have one Mathilda Gutges that really did poorly too.

I did not see mulch on the picture so my first suggestion would be to add 3-4" of mulch up to the drip line and try to keep the soil as evenly moist as possible. When the soil moisture is lacking, the plant can abort the flower buds and, if the soil moisture gets even drier, you will then start to notice leaves drying out.

So it possible that these issues could have caused lack of bloomage. Another thing to think about in the blooming department is that mopheads and lacecaps produce flower buds in July-ish for us down in the southern part of the US (August-ish in the northern states). Because of that, do not prune in July or later because you could be cutting off the invisible flower buds that will open in the Spring. And watering issues in that very hot and very dry part of the year could make the plant kill the flower buds too. That is where evenly moist soil and mulch helps.

In my hot climate, I use the finger method to help with watering. It goes like this: insert a finger into the soil to a depth of 4" daily for 2-3 weeks to determine if the soil is dry, moist or dry. Do this in the mornings and water only if the soil is dry or almost dry. A gallon of water per watering should suffice around this time of the year. Each you water, make a note in a wall calendar. After 3 weeks, review the watering notes in the calendar and determine how often you had to water (once every 3/4/5 days, etc). Then set the sprinkler or drip to water 1 gallon of water on that same frequency of days (once every 3/4/5etc days). If temps go up-down and stay there, check using the finger method again to see if you need to tweak things. In the summer (the 90s start here in May), I add 1.5 gallons of water per watering. Add 50% more water than mentioned if your soil is sandy.

Since it is close to Spring, give the plant some fertilizer. About 1/2 a cup of cottonseed meal, compost or composted manure. You can also use a general purpose slow-release chemical fertilizer like Osmocote NPK 10-10-10. A single application should last thru the year but a second one with half as much fertilizer may be useful in places where the soil is sandy or where the plant does not shut down during Fall but goes dormant later like in December-Jan. Normally though, that single application of fertilizer should do for the whole year. You can add weak fertilizers like liquid seaweed, liquid fish or coffee grounds but normally, stop fertilizers in July-ish so the plant will go dormant at the proper time.

Pruning is an issue that should be minimal with hydrangeas provided they are planted in a location where the plant will attain its size at maturity (the plant labels gives "guesses" of what the dimensions will be). When May arrives, all stems that should have leafed out should be leafing out. If not, they can be cut to the ground as they did not make it thru winter. But other types of pruning should be done after the plant has bloomed and by the end of June. In June, I remove criss crossing branches, dead branches but only if they look like I should. That means I have probably pruned in June less then once in the last 5 years. So basically, do not make pruning an annual chores with hydrangeas.

Keep the other stuff around the shrub away so it does not impede air flow or compete with the hydrangea for fertilizer or water.

Luis

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Whoops, see new post!

Urbansage_gardener
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Thanks for you tips, I placed composte around and now it's showing promise leaving are coming back and can't wait to see it bloom again thank you...

luis_pr
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Hope you have a good hydrangea growing season this year. Mine are slightly behind yours. The oakleaf hydrangeas never fully lost their leaves and still sport what they were wearing last year, except the leaves are gorgeous reds/purples-ishes. One mophead in a protected location also did not loose the leaves but the others did and I am seeing evidence of tiny, tiny leaf out. The paniculatas, as usual, are still snoring loudly. :D

Except for the paniculatas and oakleafs, all evidence of spent blooms disintegrated. The other two have some little slivers still left where they used to have blooms last year. They are quite tiny so I am not even going to deadhead them.

I also took advantage of the nice weather to amend my alkaline soil and am going to add some composted manure or cottonseed meal this or next weekend.

Urbansage_gardener
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It so sad when then they flowers disintegrate; also, I might need to use something for the ph balance for because the flowers were a blue/violet color now there white and pink bloom age nevertheless there still beautiful I just want to experiment and see if I can restore the former color

luis_pr
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Well, if the blooms are turning pink and they used to be blue, that means that the plant cannot absorb aluminum from the soil. This can occur either because there is very little in your soil or because there is and the plant cannot absorb it because alkaline soil prevents the soil from absoebing the aluminum.

So to get blues, add aluminum sulfate to the soil according to label directions. This will increase the amount of aluminum. The sulfate part will make the soil acidic and acidic soil makes aluminum uptake in hydrangeas work much better. But amending the soil like this is something that you will need to do forever because, if you stop amending, the soil will revert back to alkaline, the hydrangea will have more difficulty absorbing aluminum and the blooms will revert back to a shade of pink.

Alternative amendments: I mention these because aluminum sulfate in large quantities can kill azaleas and rhododendrons so people decide not to use aluminum sulfate because -say- they have azaleas close to the hydrangeas. If your soil has little aluminum, note that some of these do not add aluminum to the soil (ck the labels to know for sure) so aluminum sulfate is best then. If your soil already contains aluminum but it is alkaline (soil tests tell you this), change the soil from alkaline to acidic using garden sulphur, greensand, or iron sulfate or any of various iron-chelated liquid compounds sold at plant nurseries. Again, apply per label directions, observe the results (how the blooms look) and adjust as needed. Be careful not to exceed the recommended amounts by too much as sulphur compounds in excess can burn the roots.



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