petals are turning brown and papery

17 years ago

Last month, I received two gorgeous endless summer mop head plants. They did very well for about three weeks...large blue/purple blossoms! But for the past week or so, many of the blossoms are drying out in places and turning brown. They are planted against my front porch, and get full sun in the morning and then another two hours of sun in late afternoon. I live in Massachusetts, but it has been in the 80's for a few weeks. The stems drooped to the ground at the end of each day, but a thorough daily watering seems to revive them somewhat. But the increasing number of those brown, dried up petals are really worrying me. And I'm also worried about over watering, although they seem to need it. Can anyone suggest what might be going on? These are my first hydrangias and I absolutely 'fell in love' with these plants and want so much to 'save them!' Thank you for any help you can offer.

angela-rose

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Comments (4)

luis_pr
17 years ago
Hello, angela-rose. To encourage rebloom, remove those spent/browned flowers (deadheading the spent flowers will encourage it to set buds and bloom again). You can use those blooms for drying, leave them there until Spring or you can throw them in the compost pile. If the blooms were younger, you could put them in a vase too.

Luis
gw:angela-rose
17 years ago
luis pr - thank you for your response to my question. I am so relieved....I thought I was losing my beloved plants. I am very new to hydrangias, but it was love at first sight. I followed your advise and deadheaded most of the spent flowers. NEw buds are already showing! Does this mean that the plants will give another full flowering this summer? Thanks again!
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First off, they should be outside if at all possible. Roses are not house plants and usually eventually die inside. Second, It looks like the brown spots are only on the outer guard petals. If you got spray on them that could have caused the spots. Third, these small gift roses are made up of several stems placed together in a small pot to make them look fuller for sale. Some how a different color stem got mixed in. It does happen. I rarely suggest it but you could try and split the two into their own pots. They probably need a bigger pot anyway. The gift pots are always very tiny. If you do try to split them you need to be VERY careful not to tear off the tiny white feeder roots or the plants will die. As I said I don't normally even suggest trying to separate them because it is difficult to keep them alive when doing so. Otherwise, just put the entire contents of the small pot into a larger one and fill with soil. That way you don't have to disturb the root ball at all and it should be fine. And take it OUTSIDE in the sun and wind and rain! It will be much happier out there.
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bobby1973
17 years ago
hi angela-rose,

this is just my .02, but it's possible that the foliage on your hydrangeas is turning brown and flaky because they're maybe getting too much sun throughout the day. last fall i hastily transplanted my hydrangea to an area that gets full sun, and it didn't put out any blooms at all this summer - not even any buds! i noticed that the edges of many of the leaves are brown. i think the over-exposure to direct sunlight is causing them to become a little crispy. so i'll probably find a new spot for them again this fall:)

take good care,
bobby
gw:dismouse1atyahoo_com
17 years ago
I have been having the same concerns. During the day my Endless Summer get full sun and by late afternoon they are droopy. The blossoms have started to turn brown only since this has been happening. I wonder if it's too much sun or too hot. The nursery we bought them from had them out in full sun all day. We have been watering them twice a day, but it has been in the 90's here lately.

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petals are turning brown and papery

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luis_pr

gw:angela-rose

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bobby1973

gw:dismouse1atyahoo_com

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