Now.

One more

Some of the stems turn dark brown.

It may just be preparing to shut down for the end of our very long growing season. Only God knows when the wholesaler forced it to leaf out... usually they pick rather early & abnormal times so the plant looks nice in store shelves by late March or April.

As a result, your shrub may just be reacting to reduced light leves and slowing down. As our very long growing season starts to end, previously greenish stems begin to transition to brown colors as they harden and prepare for winter. Some hydrangeas do this before others. Some do it more brownish than others.

I can't speculate much on what else happened while it was being cared for by the coworker. Leaves on some of my hydrangeas recently turned light green so I amended the soil with acidifiers (greensand and aluminum sulfate that I had handy); other leaves are showing signs of drying out but the plants always do that as they are getting ready to shut down so, unless you see new issues, I would not worry much. Consider that too much watering causes root rot which makes leaves wilt/droop continuously 24/7 and your plant's leaves look mostly fine.

I said mostly because in picture 3, I see one leaf that may either be dirty, has some mite webbing on top of the leaf or has a touch of powdery mildew -- see the grayish color on the top of the bottom large leaf on the right side of the main stem. I could not clearly tell which of those possibilities but -good news- this issue was not in other leaves. If it is PM, it could be the result of overhead watering so water the soil instead of the leaves.

You may also want to check the soil pH too in case that explains the leaves turning light green. It is a common problem in potted/often watered hydrangeas. Or it could be that the leaves are just getting reading to dry out as the plant shuts down between now and December.

This newly purchased shrub will n-o-t be in sync with the other ones that you have this year. So do not worry but keep an eye on it. Post again if another symptom(s) develops.

Lastly, I would add a small layer of organic compost so the water & soil moisture last a trickle longer in the pot. It will also supply some minerals as it slowly decomposes.

Enjoy the new purchase!
Luis

Hi Luis,

I kinda think it's probably the disease because the other 2 hydrangeas that I bought roughly about the same time are doing fine despite the blooms as you can see in the pic. I treated the sick one back in August once when I came back home from MN for 2 weeks. However, it's doing worse. I quarantine the sick one and hope the next new buds coming back next year will be ok. By the way, I have a few other questions to ask. How many hours of sun do you think the hydrangeas need in our area? Right now the temperature is not too hot but my potted hydrangeas still droop even though they only get direct sun from 9 am to 1 pm on my patio. :( I am thinking of getting a shade cloth to help. Due to the tricky part of mounting the shade on my patio, my plant will probably have to be in the sun longer than 1 pm. How many percent light blocked by the shade should I get? Thanks in advance for you input.

It has been windy so that may be the cause. But ck the pot to make sure it drains well. I try to provide shade starting at 11am but I have some in no sun but in "bright shade". A location that is not sunny and not windy can also help because on windy days, they will loose lots of moisture thru those big leaves faster than they can absorb more thru the roots. Since pots can be moved easily, try tweaking the location a little. I have seen some people use 30% shade cloth elsewhere so you could try that. Adding some mulch may help conserve moisture (as opposed to loosing it thru evaporation). A thin 1/2" layer would be better than no mulch. As usual, keep an eye on wilting & drooping episodes. Only when I see them still wilted in the morning will I take action to water them out of schedule.

This post was edited by luis_pr on Sun, Oct 19, 14 at 13:56

They look normal to me....new growth going on. That's a good thing. Don't pamper them to death :):). I love hydrangeas.
Listen to Luis!! Good luck with them.

Margaret

Interesting pot. Can you please tell me what it is called? It looks like you can make it different sizes but how does the bottom work? Thanks!

Luis, thanks again for the advice.
Margaret, I am already pampering them so much that my friends think I'm crazy ! :)

kimpa, the pot is call air-pot. You can find the info at http://www.airpotgarden.com/
They come in black and I just spray painted them the colors I wanted :) I bought mine from http://www.roguehydro.com