Hello, ajfan. Winter damage could cause browning, especially if it is throughout the shrub and near the ends, which are always more sensitive to the cold. However, I would expect this to become an issue earlier in the growing season. Since you are in Z4, the timing may be ok for your zone. In case it is not, also monitor the soil moisture. Due to lack of moisture in the summer months, the leaves can turn brown from the edges inwards. Also, your PG may have attained a size where it needs more water than in prior years. Or it may need water more often. Insects & other pests would normally damage or "skeletonize" leaves and you would have noticed this before the leaves browned out so I am not sure this is "the" problem.. Just to be on the safe side, I would also do a soil pH test using soil pH tes kits sold in plant nurseries, watch out for salt burn and do a formal soil test if you have not done one ever or not in the last 5 years or so. Make sure you do not overwater or fertilize in response to this problem. Too much of them now can complicate analysis of the problem or cause other problems. Luis

Is the ground still soaking wet after ten days? Is the ground boggy to begin with or the plant below grade? If so then maybe root rot is happening or happened. Kind of hard to visualize 25 minutes of a hose running would cause root rot in a healthy plant. Our hose ran for 24 hours or more one weekend a couple years ago (we were out of town and the nozzle busted on the hose). Lots of erosion but the Annabelle hydrangea showed no signs of stress from all the water rushing by it. We've had flooding at times (23 inches in a 24 hour period in Sept, 2009) with no ill effect (except some crinum bulbs did not come back the next spring).

Welcome to the New England forum. What a lovely yard you have! I will start by saying that I don't grow this variety of Hydrangea paniculata, though I do have 3 other selections (White Diamond, Pinky Winky, and Quickfire.) I also have put some thought and planning into screening certain views in my garden, so hopefully I can contribute something useful. IME new plants take a bit of time after initial planting to get to their ultimate shape. New plantings are putting much of their growth energy into establishing roots their first growing season. Your plants look like they are also blooming well, and IME H. paniculata varieties establish quicker than many other woody plants, so you will probably see additional vigorous top growth this coming season and thereafter. I'd wait until after the third season to decide whether they will provide the screening that you want. There is a PeeGee down the road from me that is out in the open on all sides like yours, and I will take a look at it next time I go by to see how close to the ground it wants to grow. A couple of comments about your inspiration photo (IP) vs. your situation: How sure are you that the IP is actually PeeGee? There are a bunch of different varieties of H. paniculata with somewhat different overall size; branch stiffness; blossom color, shape, and timing; and each has a slightly different look. Your photo is a bit too fuzzy to my eye to be sure which it is. Your planting situation (open on all sides) is a bit different than the IP, which is backed by other plants. This has two potential effects on the H. paniculatas in the IP which could give them a different appearance than yours (but might not given a few years of growth.) First, this type of Hydrangea prefers a lot of light and the IP's backing of taller plants may be causing the hydrangeas to reach forward and weep a bit in its effort to get more light. Second, since there is more than one layer of plants, any gaps are covered up by the plants in the background. So, what can you do? You can be patient and see how they fill in once they really get growing. You may find that given a couple of years that they do what you want without any other planting since they naturally have an arching branch form. H. paniculata responds well to hard pruning once established, and you could cut them back to below where they are currently sending out leafy branches to get them to branch out lower. This would leave you without screening for a bit when you did this, however, though they will grow back quickly (a couple of months). Or you can do what I do when I want really dense screening; I plant 2-3 layers of plants so that any gaps are filled by other plants. So, you could plant some mid-sized perennials or lower shrubs to fill in the lower gaps of your PeeGees. To make specific suggestions that would be successful we'd need more information such as whether you are willing to plant on this side of the split rail fence and how much room there is on the other side of the PeeGees before the pool deck seating area, amount of sun, and compass direction of the view from the photographer to the pool. However, I've seen photos of Hydrangea arborescens Annabelle in front of H. paniculata, and there are a number of other possible plants that might work here to provide another layer to fill in gaps if they remain. Here are a few blog posts from a Detroit area designer, Deborah Silver, that may give you some ideas. (Her favorite Hydrangea, Limelight, is another H. paniculata, so much of what she says about them would apply to your PeeGees.) Designing with Hydrangeas and here are photos of Annabelle with Limelight (fourth and fifth photos): Hydrangeas and some more photos of the same garden. You can see how having more than one kind of plant (in this case two kinds of Hydrangea) and more than one row can make for a dense planting, since I think this is just a year old. The H. paniculatas will get much taller while Annabelle will top out at 4'. These two both have info on pruning H. paniculatas Let's Talk Pruning A Second Look at Limelight Despite what she says about pruning H. paniculatas, I never prune my H. paniculatas. Here is my 6 year old Pinky Winky which has never seen pruners other than to remove the spent blossoms on the branch tips from the previous year each spring, and it is completely full all the way down to the ground. It's about 8' tall. I think that PeeGees tend to be a bit more fountain-shaped than either Limelight or Pinky Winky.

If main concern is early browning, then yes, limelight is probably your best bet. Pee Gee and Tardiva seem to do fine but those plants become monsters even compared to limelight. Pinky Winky and Quickfire do pretty well in my area but that much sun would effect the color change I would think, plus they tend to be leggy so not the greatest to grow as a hedge. Fire light sounds promising as a hedge but its a newer hydrangea so I have no idea how it will perform in my area, let alone yours.