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Usually my hydrangea comes back really nicely every year but suddenly after producing its largest bloom to date its leaves all began to shed and its blooms faded. I fed it, moved it area with more sun but nothing seems to be working for it. I really would hate to lose it as I've had it for some time now.
Last year:


This year:


There used to be leaves on the stems but they wilted when I missed only a day(!) of watering. I really don't know what is going on with my plant but it has me really upset so any help would be much appreciated, thank you.

Hello and welcome, otulissa. Wow, that is quite a change. Sorry you are having this problem. Can you give us more information and details?

For instance, how old is this plant? under what sun/shade conditions was it planted before? meaning from what hour to what hour did it get sun in its previous location? and what sun/shade conditions does it have now?

In the photos, it appears to be potted but pot has changed. I cannot make out the type of new pot from pictures 2, 3, 4. It seems to be made of metal? Do these pots have water holes at the bottom?

You said the leaves wilted when you missed only a day of watering. Wilting is a normal thing that happens with hydrangeas when the leaves loose moisture thru the leaves faster than they can absorb water thru the roots. Typically this is an issue in hot and-or windy summer days. The plants can recover from wilting episodes on their own provided they have sufficient soil moisture. Where are you? what is your weather like? has it been warm? windy?

When you watered, about how much water dd you give the plant per watering? What time of the day do you normally water?

When did it start loosing leaves? I assume they were yellowing out?

You also said that you moved it to an area with more sun. If it was wilting, that was due to heat stress so more sun would not be something I would recommend. Please put it in full but bright shade. Until things stabilize, please give it no direct sun at any time of the morning, afternoon or evening. It will be ok. Less sun can produce less blooming but you actually need dense shade for that. I have several ones growing in those conditions.

Also, I need to figure out how strong your sun is this time of the year based on the weather you recently have had so let us know in what city/state and USDA zone you are located.

Luis

Hi, I'm in Florida. I purchased the plant in 2013. It's been a hot spring/summer and during this time it rained almost every single day up until the days when I was doing the watering which was in the mornings. The pot is plastic and has holes at the bottom. Formally the plant was under a large tree but that was also the place where the problem began but I can still move it back if shade is better. The tree is just very dense this year.

It's hard for me to say exactly when it started losing leaves. It was as though it never produced very many and then lost them quicker than it could make more.

I would say before it was getting close to four hours of sun, in the morning. Between the tree and the house it didn't really get the noon sun. Where it is now it gets more of the morning sun but still not the noon sun.

Well, it sounds like a combination of over watering and heat stress.

Wilting is a common response in large leafed hydrangeas like your mophead to "heat stress". That includes too much sun, over/under watering, high temperatures and windy days. Watering a lot, only because of wilting, can allow the potting soil to become very wet at the bottom of the pot. This can result in root rot so be careful it does not happen for long enough periods of time.

How to tell what the plant is trying to tell us:

If the plant is getting too much sun, the leaves tend to turn all yellowish (including the leaf veins) from sunburn, maybe white-ish sometimes too. But the only leaves that present this issue would be those in direct contact with the sun. The ones inside the bush are protected (at least for a while) and they tend to remain dark green.

When temps are high and people give them extra water in response to temperatures, hydrangeas may develop yellow leaves due to stress and inability to breath and get oxygen due to soil being too wet. Paniculatas are known for showing their feet in the Summer. A few leaves turning yellow is ok in the Summer but more than "a few" may raise flags.

Normal response to too little water is for the leaves to brown out from the edges and moving the brown areas inwards.

Typical responses to too much water can result also in browned out or black-ish leaves, especially when root rot happens.

So what now?

Await to see if the plant leafs out. That can take either a few weeks to as long as Spring.

In our areas with very strong sun, it may be best to put the shrub where it gets morning sun until 10-11am. I actually have some of my mopheads, serratas and oakleaf hydrangeas in almost full shade or full shade. It does reduce blooming a bit but nothing big. I discovered that mopheads did not care that much for sun when my sister's neighbor had his mophead in full shade except for a 1-2 hour sliver of time in the morning and then it was quite shady but the plant always flowered very well. Again, this works fine in places where the sun in strong.

Make a habit of watering when the soil is dry instead of when the plant is wilting. Wilting is what hydrangeas do when they loose more moisture thru the leaves than they can absorb thru the roots. It is helpful because it reduces the area of leaf exposure to sunlight. Normally, hydrangeas should recover on their own at night if the soil remains evenly wet. If the soil is dry then they look droopy in the morning too and that would be a sign to water for sure.

Since it was so rainy and hot but you had to water every day due to the wilting, the shrub may have had too much water. I am not sure if the soil remains too wet now still. Remove the plant from the pot and see if the soil in the bottom is wet. If it is, leave the plant unpotted until the potting mix dries out a bit and then re-pot it. Use this time also to observe if the plant is root bound; meaning if roots are growing in circles around the sides of the pot. If so, consider transplanting it to a bigger pot and cut the roots vertically every 1-2" and in the bottom, cut out and "X".

In case you do not do this with potted plants, check in May-July if the sun has tilted such that morning sun in Spring becomes sun until the afternoon hours in the Summer. If so, move the pot to a shadier location in May-July but feel free to bring it back to the old spot once temperatures go down... Hydrangeas need morning sun in the summer but, just an example, they can get full day sun in winter here. I have a Pistachio located where it gets almost all sun in winter (when the sun comes in sideways) but only a few hours of sun in the summer (when the sun comes in straight on top)..

Luis

Wow, thank you for all of this information that really sounds like it could be the problem. It's good to have something to work with and I'll start making the changes straight away. I hope this is it and my plant can be saved. Thank you for the advice.

Well now that the plant is out of the pot I can see that water was a big problem. The soil was very wet! What really surprised me however was what appeared to be clay all round the base and walls of the pot which I assume was stopping up the water from getting out. Discovering this was very odd to me but the pot is empty now and hopefully everything can dry. I may even consider a new pot all together now.

Wow, good to know! Plastic pots do not let the soil moisture escape/breath much other than thru the holes but other materials do.