Natsu, Thank you so much for your post on diamont rouge! Although I'm in zone 5,(5b) per the new zone map, I love hydrangeas and am not adverse to taking risks putting something in that won't come back. So I will be on a HUNT for this new hydrangea in the US. If it shows up in MO I can probably get one as my son is in school there. L. Ann, I bought 1 vs from my nursery and loved the pink paniculata bloooms so much, I moved things around in my yard to accommodate a 2nd. I'm not sure anything will ever get large in my yard as I keep moving things around til I find a good spot that it likes or so I can accommodate something else I just have to have. (It's easier bringing home plants than dogs - lol). Anyway, my vs seemed to bloom midsummer when I found them til mid fall. Only 1 or 2 blooms turned somewhat magenta, but the light pink colors were really worth it. Good luck! And Luis, thank you, thank you, thank you for all your knowledge and advise you give all us rookies!

Can you post a few pictures? Include one of this string you see. Spider mites can cause leaves to curl and grow odd-looking but will not usually kill a hydrangea. Not sure if it dried out though so I would maintain the soil evenly moist thru the end of the month or a little longer just to see if it one of those 1 year olds that wakes up unusually late. That happens a lot with many hydrangeas (leafing out late) but being so so late, this bears watching and monitoring closely. Make sure you have 3-4" of mulch thru the drip line to help maintain the soil moist longer and not let it dry easily. Do not fertilize the shrub. A gallon of water per watering should suffice.

I wouldn't bother treating it. It's not anything serious (those bottom leaves are showing mechanical damage, not fungal issues) and the plant will most likely outgrow it. Often fungicides wreak more havoc than they correct and I am hesitant to recommend them unless the situation clearly warrants it, which this does not. Keep in mind the cultural needs of the plant - does it have enough air circulation, is it getting enough/too much water? One thing you might want to keep in mind when reviewing your garden is that it is not going to be perfect and pristine - stuff happens in nature :-) If you can stand 10' away from the plant in question and the problem just pops out at you, then you have a reason to be concerned. If it's not obvious at a distance of 10', you are being overly protective. Back off and relax a bit :-))!!

Hello, Kristin. Looks like Cercospora leaf spot and, ugh, a bad & early infestation at that. It normally starts later in the summer and at the bottom of the shrub & spreads up. Damaged areas are brownish with sometimes a purple halo. Anthracnose is a darker shade of brown; see the links below. If you have not already tried doing these things, try some "clean sanitation" / "good housekeeping" practices: no overhead watering (water only the soil and do so early in the mornings); discard the leaves in the trash when the plant goes dormant; replace the mulch with heavy infestations; discard any plant debris at the bottom of the plant; improve wind flow by not planting other shrubs very close to the infected plant; prune early those leaves that are about to fall, that are very infected (biggest leaf pic #1), that have areas that appear to be disintegrating (leaf to the left of the biggest leaf in pic #1). The infestation will make some leaves turn yellowish after a while... at which point I sometimes prune those too. Frequent summer rains can increase the rate of the spread of this disease, the leaf spotting and the defoliation (which is why you should prune off early the worst leaves). Watering the soil only, not over-watering and drought conditions help reduce/slow the spread. The down spout may be helping the infestation in this case too so see if you can deflect the water away from the plant. If all this is too difficult to control the disease and you can afford replacing the shrub it, consider replacing the shrub. For control with a fungicide, begin applications when spotting of the leaves is first seen and continue applying per label directions. Fungicides registered for the control of Cercospora leaf spot: azoxystrobin (aka Heritage; has the smallest application rate and largest repeat interval); chlorothalonil (Daconil); mancozeb (Dithane; Protect; etc); myclobutanil (Immunox); thiophanate-methyl (Cleary's 3336). Note that these fungicides try to control the spread but do not cure and cannot prevent the symptoms from re-infestation in future years. They work best when you apply fungicides with different active ingredients. For example: start with active ingredient #1; if it is good for 7 days then on the 7th day, spray with active ingredient #2; if that one is good for 14 days then on the 14th day, go back to spraying active ingredient #1; and so forth. Some of my shrubs have this problem but the leaf spots show up later, like in late August or September (we have hardly any rain in July-August so that helps me). More info: http://www.aces.edu/pubs/docs/A/ANR-1212/ANR-1212.pdf or https://clemson.edu/extension/hgic/plants/landscape/shrubs/hgic1067.html