I am adding some more information to my above post. It has been kind of dry this past week with no rain, and she's in a pot, so I have been giving her some water most days this week, but not so much that her tray is full of standing water.

I have fertilized her earlier this year (maybe March but not lately) with Miracle Gro extended release pellets sprinkled on top of the soil (not dug in). I also put some Espoma stuff in her pot to try to help her turn blue. I did not dig it into the dirt, but it makes a chalky mixture when I water the plant. It's about gone now.

Was fertilizing a no-no?

I'm in central NC. It has been humid and in the mid 80s.

My 2cents ~ keep watering to wash out what may have caused the sudden wilting.

I recently relocated 2 of my F&Es in early spring as the greens were just starting to emerge ~ we had a few overnite hard freezes & 1 of the 2 ended up drying up (all old canes were bone dry ~ pruned them half way). I waited a while before digging her up ~ didn't have the heart to pitch her, so stuck her in a nursery pot w/ new soil, she is sprouting tiny greens from the base that looks like young H leaves.

Hydrangeas are not fragile plants they have a way of bouncing back!!!

Best of luck!

Sorry to hear that your Penny Mac is not doing so well, ditnc. Some of mine are starting to show the behavior that you are describing. In my case, it appears to be caused by excessive winds and higher temperatures. For me, this is a problem during the summer.

The winds cause large-leafed shrubs to loose moisture thru the leaves faster than they can absorb thru the roots and I get wilting. Days with winds around 25mph or more may trigger this problem so I keep an eye on weather forecasts and water extra the night before days with Wind Advisories by the Weather Service.

There are some things that you can do to alleviate the problem. Placing the shrub in an area that is not windy, obviously, will help. Maintaining a lot of mulch (3-4") will also help. Surround the pot with another object so the sun does not directly strike the pot. And water the soil early in the morning on windy days (or water the night before if you do not have time in the mornings).

If I see a wilting episode that looks really bad, I immediately water them. Otherwise I check the soil to see if it is dry, moist or what. If the soil is dry, I water. If moist, I leave them alone and water if they have not recovered in the morning. If the soil is wet, I try to see what is causing that.

Normally, hydrangeas in moist soil will recover on their own by nightfall or by the next morning. If they do not recover by the next morning, give them a full extra watering or maybe half a watering.

However, if you notice that they never recover and remain wilted -even on days that are not windy- then this could indicate that they are starved for oxygen or have developed root rot. Root rot, a fungal infection, has similar symptoms as those of insufficient watering or windy days. The leaves wilt but stay wilted forever. This is normally the result of the roots not being able to absorb moisture for the leaves above because they are rotting due to too much standing water or water that does not drain well. An example of this would be if the pot's draining holes are clogged; the plant roots cannot absorb oxygen and begin to decay. If they stay in wet conditions for long then they rot. If you catch it early, the shrub can recover.

So keep an eye on the wilting episodes and on the soil moisture. Make sure that water does not accumulate on the bottom of the pot. Give the shrub about 1 gallon or so of water if the soil feels dry or almost dry.

Plants that are stressed should not be fertilized but.... the other side of the coin is that plants in pots need to be fertilized more often because the frequent waterings tend to leech the important minerals out through the drain holes. So if you want to know whether the soil does not have enough minerals, you can get one of those soil test kits found in nurseries. They are useful for checking if the soil pH is ok and if the soil has enough N-P-K. They are cheap and not particularly accurate but eh� close enough. If you are following the instructions on the fertilizer labels, you should be ok.

Do not go overboard with some of the products used to turn the blooms blue. You could end up damaging roots if you apply too much of the amendment. Too much sulfur causes the problem because iot can burn roots. Espoma is a good company with good products.

Good luck, Luis

Thanks!

I took her out of her pot to check her roots, since she is not in a windy spot. She's very protected. She was pretty saturated, so I loosened the root ball a little bit, and put her into a bigger pot which has better drainage. I put new dirt in.

I gave her a little water to get rid of air pockets and put her into full shade.

Fingers crossed she starts to recover.

Fingers crossed here as well!

I was going to suggest leaching the pot also.

Slow release fert and watering so it hardly comes out the bottom can lead to salt build up.

Leching is watering with good drainage to flush out the chemicals that are in the soil?

...also, when I changed her pot and soil today I scraped off anything I could (fertilizer beads, the Espoma stuff) from the top of the soil. Hopefully, if the plant dislikes these things, it should start to improve now. Some of the leaves are still quite healthy. We'll see.

I appreciate all the thoughts and advice. Thanks.

Yes.

Ok but it was not necessary to remove the exisiting fertilizer pellets or the Espoma stuff. If you applied them per the label directions, the amounts should be safe. Just do not add any more for a while.

Good luck!

She's still wilty in areas and dropping leaves. I don't know if she was waterlogged with maybe root rot or needs more water to leach out chemicals. How much could slow release fertilizer pellets hurt a plant?

If I water her more to leach but her problem was too much water, I will definitely kill her. I just don't know what to do to save it. I propped her pot up on 'feet' to give her even better drainage. And she was in her prior pot all last year with no problems. I only fertilized her once that I can remember (March, I believe), and she was fine and bloomed until last week when the wilting and dropping leaves started. When I put her in a larger pot with bigger holes, she was not root bound.

Does that shed any more light on which problem it could be?

Oh no! My Endless Summer is now starting to do the same thing. It was fine yesterday. Today, one of the old blossoms wilted and the leaves are wilting on that branch as well.

Leaves continue to drop off Penny Mac. I am 90% sure she's a goner.

So sad. I flushed them with water today, just now. I probably did more harm, but it was leave alone and see if that helped, or flush and see if I can save the other one.

I determined what the problem was (past tense): Phytophthora root rot.

It wiped them out. C'est la vie.