when do hydrangea's show new growth?

[superschwein22]

Somebody gave me a beautiful Hydrangea last May and it looked beautiful for about two or three months and then it kind of fizzled away. By the time fall came around, it had no leaves left. My husband kept on telling me that it just went dormant but I feel like it may have died on me.
Would it show new growth at this tim if it was still alive? Trying to figure out whether I should get my hopes up or plan on finding a new plant for that spot.

[Dillbert]

planted outdoors?

should have kept its green until frost.

break off / scrape a stalk close the the ground - any green layers left?

we don't see any active growth / budding until late May (central PA)

[superschwein22]

Yes, planted outdoors and definitely did not keep its green until frost. Absolutely no green layers left, just stalks. It is rather sad looking. I am assuming this means I lost the plant. Maybe I will just cut it down completely and see whether something comes up but I kind of feel like this may have been it for the poor plant.

[rainbowgardener]

Different varieties of hydrangeas have different cold hardiness, but most are not hardy below zone 5. I think most of Maine is zone 3 or 4 (brrrr!), so your hydrangea might not have made it through the winter. Newly planted hydrangeas need extra winter protection even in zone 5. However, if it dropped all its leaves before frost, that was not from cold, it was from some other problem. It doesn't sound like it will come back, but it is too early yet. I am in southern Ohio and my hydrangea is not leafing out yet.

[msalcido]

you may want to do a "green" check. Take your fingernail and gently scratch the top layer of the dead looking stalk (towards the middle) , when you get to the next layer, if it is green, then it's still alive. I would check different stalks as some of them do die off. If you can't find any that are green, then it does sound like it may be gone.

If indeed you do find green stalks, leave those alone as new buds/blooms should form from that stalk.

Hope this somewhat helps.

[superschwein22]

Thank you so much.
Yes cold was definitely not the problem. Not sure whether it didn't like the transplant...I had a feeling thta it was gone. Still somewhat hopefull and once it stops raining, I will do the scratch test and see what happens.

[luis_pr]

You may want to maintain 3-4" of mulch up to the drip line. If this winter is dry and the ground does not freeze, I would water it (1 gallon) about once every 2-3 weeks. Leaf out should start around April but can delayed until May on newly planted shrubs so, do not panic if it is late leafing out. You can fertilize it in June with 1/2 cup of composted manure, organic compost, cottonseed meal or a general-purpose slow-release chemical fertilizer like Osmocote; you can also add some coffee grounds during the growing season. Stop all fertilizers by July-August so the nitrogen in them does not make the shrub stay awake just as winter arrives.