@Shad Burns I'm curious, where did you buy your seeds or vines from? I grow them too, and I'm always curious about the source of passiflora incarnata, when grown successfully in zone 5/6. Mine were selected from the wild, in Michigan, Indiana, and Ohio. I'm always interested in hardier strains. @Helene Albert I am in zone 5b, Chicago suburbs, literally a stone throws away from you. I grow passiflora incarnata successfully. I have fruit that's ready to harvest at end of August continuing through to October. It's truly a may sprouting perennial for me. If anyone is growing passiflora incarnata in zone 4/5/6a, please send me a message through Houzz by clicking my profile. I cannot send messages by default to most people, because messages are not enabled by default in Houzz until you go to your profile and enable them under "advanced settings." You should be able to send to me, however. I collect hardy passiflora incarnata. There is some genetic variation. Even the white version of P. incarnata aren't the same, with at least 5+ different strains floating around.

Sunlight - In the South, the leaves will sun scorch if exposed to too much sun so give them sun in the mornings and shade in the afternoons. In the northern states, they can be exposed to more sunlight. Near the border with Canada, you can probably get away with full sun. Always observe how others near your home have planted their hydrangeas. The chosen location should allow the plant to grow as wide and tall as shown in the plant label. Allow for good air flow between plants by not crowding the hydrangea near other plants. Moisture - they need a constant supply of moisture or as constant as one can practically do. To begin with, check them daily by inserting a finger into the soil to a depth of 4". If it feels almost dry or dry then water it. If it feels wet, try to determine why and take appropriate action if any is needed. Wet soil can cause fungal issues. Every time that you water, mark it in a wall calendar. After 1-2 weeks of doing this every day, review how often you had to water. Then set your sprinkler or drip irrigation to water 1g of water on the same frequency (every 2/3/4/5/etc days). Do this again when the temps change 10-15 and stay there. Apply 3-4" of mulch thru the drip line or a little beyond. Water the soil (not the leaves) early in the morning. Fertilizer - fertilize with 1/2 cup to 1 cup of cottonseed meal, compost, manure or a general purpose slow-release fertilizer in May and late June only. It is ok to add weak fertilizers like coffee grounds, liquid seaweed or liquid fish to the soil but stop all fertilizer by July/August. This prepares the plant for dormancy and helps minimize the chance of flower buds getting zapped by early frosts in the Fall. The plant in the pot will require monthly feedings during the growing season. Soil - acidic, well draining (but will tolerate some small amount of alkalinity). Neighbors or a nearby local nursery can tell you about this if you do not already know. Nurseries also sell kits for measuring alkalinity/acidity (called pH Kits, etc). If your soil is alkaline, amend the soil at least once in Spring using products that will acidify the soil (such as, garden sulphur, iron chelated liquids, green sand, etc) Pruning - if you have allowed for the size shown in the plant label, you may have to prune very little. The plant label may give exact instructions depending on whether the hydrangea blooms on new wood like the ES or not. Generally, you will do fine if you prune after the plants blooms but before the month of July/August. Wilting - will be common during the first year, especially during the summer or during windy days. If the wilting episode looks extreme, water it immediately (1/2 to 1g). Otherwise, check the soil for moisture first. If the soil is dry then water 1/2 to 1g of water. If it feels moist then wait until the next morning. If still wilted then water it. You will notice that these wilting episodes self correct after the sun goes down and will be reduced as the plant gets established in 1-2 years. Winterizing - You basically take care of this issue when you select plants that are hardy in your zone. Kentucky has USDA Zones 5 and 6. Determine in which zone you live (ask neighbors or local close-by plant nurseries, ck in the Internet) and try to purchase plants hardy on that zone or one zone less. This way, you do not have to winter protect the shrub that is planted in the ground at all (snow and the mulch takes care of protecting during the worst of winter). For hydrangeas that are planted out of zone outdoors, you will have to winter protect them. Once technique used encloses them in chicken wire that extends several inches away from the plant (width and height wise). Make sure that the ends of the stems are always protected since this is where tender flower buds reside. When the plant starts going dormant, fill the chicken wire enclosure with dried out leaves or mulch. Lots of leaves. A lot. Keep extra leaves handy in a plastic bag so you can add more when settling occurs in the middle of winter. Another winter protection technique involves slowly pressing downwards the stems with a cardboard until they are flat down. Then add leaves/mulch on top to act as insulation. A few well placed rocks can help keep the cardboard in place. See the link below for a post dealing with this topic. The potted hydrangea can be kept outside until you see that it is going dormant. Then move it into a garage like setting and water it once a week or once every two weeks. The hydrangea will be dormant but it is not dead so continue this (no fertilizers) until 1-2 weeks after the last average date of last frost for your area. Wait until late May or early June before deciding to prune any dead looking dried-out stems. Before winterizing, add more mulch to maintain 3-4". Remove plant debris under the shrubs. The spent blooms can be left over winter or they can be deadheaded. The leaves will "disintegrate" slowly as well. More Info? Go to http://www.hydrangeashydrangeas.com/ Does this help you, Jenwr? Luis Here is a link that might be useful: Overwintering Hydrangea macrophylla

H. quercifolia is somewhat challenging plant for z5. The most of the problems will occur in a first few years. Once established it will be relatively trouble free plant, though not a reliable bloomer. After all it's a z7-8 (NC, GA) native plant. First, it need 2-3 years in ground to become fully established. Being technically root hardy to z5 it still need very thick layer of mulch and burlap wraping in a first couple of winters. Spring/early summer planting is highly recommended for z5-6. Second, of all hydrangeas, young oakleaves are the most succeptible to root rot while still can't stand drought. Therefore, one have to find PROPER watering regimen to satisfy this requirement. Again, thick layer of mulch could be handy. Third, it blooms on old wood and you are back to square one for winter protection as you would be with the most of macrophyllas. Winter protection ala 'hayseedman' for quercifolias will be not only questionable due to the rangy pattern of growth, but most likely will be impossible for the most of them due to their sizes, assuming they'll not die back every other year. 'Alice' in particular, is one of the largest h.q. and could easily reach 8x8' in just 3 years and 12x12' in 5 years if no dieback. IMO, dwarf cultivars, such as Pee Wee or Sike's Dwarf (both look identical to me anyway) are the only quercifolias that could be/should be attempted to grow in solid z5 on condition that grower is determined and will put reasonable effort to protect them. Fourth, indeed, fall foliage of oakleaves is a site to behold. However, in order to develop fall color it should be grown in a considerable sun, say 3-4 hours, and here you'll have another contradiction. Location with 3-4 hours of tentatively morning sun in a summer most likely will become a 6-8-10 hours of sun in a winter and such exposure most definitely will dry flower buds or even the whole branches by the spring, thus you'll have a huge non-blooming plant in a best case scenario. Sorry for the doom and gloom, but that is how I see it. Re: 'Blue Billow'. It wasn't me who touted it, but Hayseedman reported that it blooms RELIABLY for him in z6 WITHOUT any protection. In my z6b garden I don't protect any hydrangeas except trying to chose location wisely, and indeed B.Billow bloomed for me the last three years on a row, including very cold winter of 2003/04.

Correcting iron chlorosis is a process that is slower than watching paint dry so expect to have to wait several week for improvements. I normally see leaf improvements starting in close to 2 weeks and the changes happen faster when I use liquids (iron-chelated liquid compounds) instead of granular amendments. Iron chlorosis starts with light green leaves that turn yellow or even white, all the while staying dark green around the leaf veins. But other mineral deficiencies can have similar symptoms. If you notice no improvements after -say- two week or two and a half weeks, there may be another mineral that is low or there may be damage to the roots that produces the chlorosis. After no improvements in that time frame, I would check the roots, get a soil test/analysis done asap and add some fertilizer (which you already added this as compost) with lots of secondary minerals (other than the usual NPK) to see if that helps. Over-watering can also sometimes trigger chlorosis when it rains a lot very quickly in places that do not drain very well. It too goes away slowly. Unclear what the roots issue may be without a few pictures but -just a comment- some hydrangeas develop adventitious roots near the surface. I cannot see what you see but, I usually cover them with mulch and let them be (they will eventually dry out). If some pest however, is injuring the hydrangea roots then you need to cover and protect the roots and take appropriate action to identify and block the pest in your garden. Surprising -in a good way- that the plant is growing and still blooming fine if the roots are disturbed!