Hello, puzzelmaster24. Wilting is a common behaviour of new hydrangeas that are not established. They wilt when they do not have enough soil moisture, when the temperatures are hot or when it is very windy. The cause (when talking about 'new' shrubs) is due to a small root system. The roots cannot absorb water as fast as the large leaves loose moisture. The plant's reaction to that problem is to wilt the leaves; this looks awful but the plant looses less moisture through them because the curled leaves have less contact with sunlight. What to do? Most of the time nothing but, until you get used to this, here are some suggestions: * CHECK: insert a finger to a depth of 4 inches and make sure that the soil feels moist. If it feels dry or almost dry then water right away. If the soil feels moist or feels wet, take no action. * MULCH: maintain about 4 inches of acidic mulch up to the drip line or a little further away from the drip line. * WATER: if the wilting episode looks extreme, water immediately. But most of the time, the shrubs will recover by either sun down, bed time or by the next morning. If the plant is still wilting by next morning, water it (half the usual amount of water). Water the soil around the base of the plant, not the leaves. * BE CAREFUL: Try to control the urge to water as soon as you see the plant wilting. Excessive moisture can cause root rot and this would kill the plant. In about a year, the plant will have established a good root system and the episodes will be limited to really hot times during the summer or when there is a wind advisory. If you know a very hot or very windy day is coming up, you can water the night before. Or you can move the pot to a more protected location one that one day. Luis

I would consider what type of fertilizer is used. It sounds to me as if you are using a quick release with high nitrogen. Get your soil tested and adjust accordingly. The stems of the Annabelles should be strong enough to prevent flopping over. Lots of green with few or no blooms and weak stems usually means too much nitrogen. Like most shrubs, these should be resting or dormant from cool weather when being transplanted. Zone 6 is a bit too warm right now. I would wait til the beginning of Oct. at the earliest and probably late October. You can prepare the hole in advance but do get that soil analysis. Remember that if the shrub is against a wall it is in a warmer spot than what would be in the open. A Hydrangea bush should be set at least three to four feet from the wall. This post was edited by sleeplessinftwayne on Fri, Sep 5, 14 at 15:00

I think you're chances are pretty good that it wont come back. The smothering is probably the most effective. Now, if any seedlings show up, you can always just pull them before they get too big.

Where did you think the conversation would go? They said they didn't get your check-- there are all sorts of reasons that could've happened -- and to send them another one. They're not going to have somebody go through the mailroom or return to the P.O. where they have their mail drop to see if there happens to be an envelope (or 20!) on the ground nearby. Things happen -- the P.O. loses something, something gets lost in the car, etc. It's not like they're out to get you for a late fee (I've never had that happen on anything but a credit-card payment; the mortgage company will charge you a late fee if you're more than a week late, but that's not happened to me-- yet.) If this is the first time it's happened to you, be grateful. I clearly wasn't listening to your phone conversation, but it doesn't sound like anybody was rude. I'm sorry, but it just sounds like you didn't get the response you wanted to hear. She just told you what you needed to do. You can talk to them until you're blue, but they hold the cards. Hopefully that first check will never show up. If it does and they deposit it, then you're ahead one payment. If you're worried that perhaps your checking account is on the low side and it could bounce, you could transfer in a little bit from your savings account to give you a cushion there. But you know something else? Sometimes even the online payment system can mess up. I used to do my electric bill online, until I learned that they didn't have an automatic email system that confirmed the payment (I couldn't believe it didn't have that confirmation service! My other online payment systems all do!). One time a payment didn't go through. Now I pay that by check. (And they didn't turn off my service; one payment issue shouldn't make you worry about that.) Online or phone banking is also a quick way to keep track of which checks have cleared and which have not. I have never had a security issue doing that.