Also, I have read that you have to know what kind of hydrangea you have in order to know how to take care of it ... I'm not sure if that's true or not, but if so, I have no clue as to what kind it is either. I don't know if anyone can tell what kind it is by the picture of what it looks like now, so I thought I would post this picture of it from right after the funeral so maybe that will help??

Looks like a mophead (macrophylla). I would move it outdoors when it isn't too cold in a semi-shady area (no hot sun). Move it back inside if it threatens to get well below freezing but it should survive even if you forget. Don't let it dry out completely either. This should help keep it going until you move and plant it in the ground. Once it gets through one summer it should be fine in a pot outdoors. I've got a couple in pots that are doing just fine outdoors year round.

An extension of hcmsdole's idea... since your current home is going to be temporary, I would put new potting mix suggested by a local nursery and then... dig a hole in a good location and put the whole thing (pot and plant) on the ground. Cover the sides of the pot hole with soil you dug up and then put 3-4 inches of any mulch on top as dressing. Then set a sprinkler to water the area and provide about 1" of water per watering. You can measure that with an empty tuna can. When winter arrives and the leaves start to dry out and look ugly, bring the thing to the garage (or other similar place) and water it once a week or once every two weeks. When you bring it inside, also see if roots are exiting thru the holes at the bottom of the pot; if so, prune them. If the pot has no holes, go to the local plant nursery and ask them to help choose a pot with holes. When you move to the new house, just take the pot with you.

Like hcmcdole said, hydrangeas like morning sun and afternoon shade. A new one like yours may benefit from slowly exposing it to sun or leaving it in a permanently shaded area. Yes, they can also be planted in shade, specifically bright shade, places where they do not get direct sun but there is indirect light reflected so the area is bright & not a dense shade where not even grass grows. Like under trees.with high canopies. The east side of houses works fine for morning sun/after shade locations. Just re-check the amount of sunlight during the worst of the summer to make sure that it still receives the type of sun/shade combination suggested in here.

Feel free to fertilize with organic compost or cottonseed meal. About 1/2 cup to 1 cup will do fine. On a hydrangea planted on the ground, you could do this once a year. You can also add coffee grounds, liquid fish or liquid seaweed but cease most fertilizers by the end of June-July.

On a potted hydrangea, you water often because the potting soil dries out faster than on the ground. Potted hydrangeas also need more frequent fertilizations because the frequent waterings leech the fertilizer. However, you can treat your pottedbutplantedintheground hydrangea as if it was just planted in the ground except, I would check the soil moisture often.

You can do this with the finger method. Insert a finger into the soil to a depth of 2-3" and water only the soil if the soil feels dry or almost dry. About 1 gallon of water per watering is fine on a new shrub.

Luis

Thank you for all your help! I will try to move it outside to an area like you suggested. It still gets down to low-mid 30's some nights here. Is that ok or should I wait to move it out until it warms up a little more? or should I just move it inside during the night? Also, do I need to cut all those buds back since they look like they have died so that new ones can grow, or do I just leave it as is and follow the instructions you gave? Thanks again for all the help! Have a great day!

If it's been inside for months it is still too cold to move outside directly. You need to wait until nights are at least 45-50F and then transition outdoors gradually. You can cut off all the old flower heads now or when you move it.

Since it was in bloom in December, it is highly unlikely it will bloom this year. Florist or greenhouse hydrangeas - like this one - have been heavily manipulated to bloom out of season and at a very young age. It sometimes takes several years at "normal" outdoor landscape conditions before they get into a typical bloom schedule.

Hi I'm from san Antonio Texas where the weather is crazy and can get really hot during winter and spring. Im very new to gardening and I fell in love with hydrangea. Its only been a week since I bought them and I transferred them into a bigger pot but they are dying right now. Is there any way I can still revive them. Please help!! Thanks!

Looks like they need water ASAP! Or they've been drowned and the roots are rotting or already rotted. If the second case is the issue, then the only thing you can do is take cuttings and hope there is enough life in the stems to get new plants.

I think they got drowned coz the soil is very moist and yet they still wilted. How do you do the cutting?

Wow, yeah. Water, water, water. Keep them where they get afternoon/evening shade starting at around 11am (approx) and where it is not windy. Also, when first putting them outside, I like to transition them into sunlight slowly. So I may put them in bright shade for a few days; then a few hrs of morning sun and then move them into the final location.

I have not tried plastic pots before just because they get hot in the summer. If those in the pictures are plastic, you may want to switch to another material. Just a suggestion...

Cuttings are easy and I bet there are dozens of threads on this forum alone on how to propagate with cuttings. Look on YouTube as well for a more detailed instruction on how to do this.

I need help please... I bought this hydrangea yesterday from the super market and it was beautiful which is why I bought it. When I got home I let it stay outside so I could ant it today. Now it's all wilted. I watered it till water cane from the bottom of the pot. I'm beside myself. This is my mother's day gift to myself. Here is what it looks like now. It's in the house.

Is the soil actually moist when you stick a finger in? Sometimes when potting soil gets dry, it actually repels water due to the high peat content and so water runs down the outside of the rootball instead of soaking in. If this is the case (dry soil) then submerge the whole pot in water until it stops giving off bubbles. Then remove and let drain.

How cold did it get last night? Hydrangeas are frost sensitive, so if you are in an area with cold weather, it might have gotten too cold. If that is the case, you will just have to keep the soil slightly moist, bring it in at night and put out where it gets morning sun only, and continue this until after danger of frost has passed. Leaves and flowers will either recover or die, and you can remove anything that dies once it is clear it won't recover.

If you put it out in full sun and it was (almost certainly) greenhouse grown, it may have gotten too much sun, too suddenly. These are part shade plants, preferably morning sun and afternoon shade when it's hotter, but all plants need an adjustment period going from indoor or greenhouse conditions to outdoors. Start with bright shade and give it a little more sun each day over the next couple of weeks until it has adjusted. For care if it was sunburned, similarly to frost damage, leaves and flowers will either recover or die (depending on severity of damage), and you can remove anything that dies once it is clear it won't recover.

Where are you generally (state and nearest large city)? In my area, this type of hydrangea (bigleaf hydrangea, Hydrangea macrophylla) isn't fully hardy so is best grown in pots and overwintered in a building such as a garage that stays around freezing in winter.

Thank you for answering. It feels like it wet all the through. The night time temps are right now in the upper 30's. I'm in New Mexico east of Albuquerque and south of Santa Fe in the high Desert, pains area of the East Mountains. When I got home I put it out on the north side of the house. Concerned I had it in sun and then moved it o shade. A friend said I should put some ant food in or use baking soda.

No baking soda and no plant food. An already stressed plant doesn't need more shocks to its system. Baking soda will change the pH and it can't use fertilizer right now. It was happy in the growing situation it was in, so something that changed since you brought it home created the wilt.

If it is wet all the way through, let it get to be almost dry/only lightly damp before watering again.

Was it windy when it was outside? The combination of wind with your dry air might have been too much for it.

Hydrangeas need quite a bit of water, having large thin leaves. I am not sure that they are likely to be successful high desert plants, though you can certainly try. In its final setting, it should be in mostly shade and sheltered from wind.

" A friend said I should put some ant food in or use baking soda."

To what purpose?? Listening to neighbors with half-baked ideas about plant care (ant food......really??) is not going to provide any help and more than likely just make the problem worse.

A small potted hydrangea in full bloom at this time of year is most certainly greenhouse grown. Putting these somewhat pampered plants directly outside throws them into shock. Even more so if overnight temps are in the 30's.

Keep the soil just moist - not wet. Keep out of direct sunlight and in moderate temps....somewhere in the 50-60F range. The plant should recover but you have probably lost the flowers.Once the plant has recovered, gradually acclimate it to outdoor conditions before planting out.