I concur with you. Limelight blooms earlier than stated and Tardiva is always tardy. QF is early too but I am not sure about the blooming periods for LL or PD.

Hi luis_pr, how have your hydrangeas fared through this horrible drought you had/have. I hope you get enough rain soon to end this misery.

Some have done ok but the majority have done poorly. They were mulched extra well but they required quite a lot of water because of continuous temps above 105-110 and those drying winds. They all survived... although the worst ones droppped almost all leaves and then recovered when the fall temps arrived. It makes it obvious how important is for them to get & maintain moisture, get early shade starting around 11am-ish and get water even after they have lost all leaves. At one time, I thought I may have lost one because it lost all leaves kind of early, by mid-summer. But I kept watering it as usual just in case and it came back.

They all started a second leaf out season in late September... which reminds me of some of the Braford Pear Trees in the area!!! They were leafing out too and were full of those white flowers that normally precede leaf out in the Spring. The flowers are now gone but I hope a freeze does not come by and kills them.

I am glad to report that although the La Nina was forecasted to continue for one more year -it is the reason for the drought- the rains have returned in my area (around DFW Airport). I hope it is not temporary though. We have been having "regular" rains once a week since around the end of September or the start of October.

Lake levels are down considerably so we are not out of the woods. We continue being on a Stage 1 drought with the possibility of once-a-week-only watering by next summer so I am not buying any shrubbery.

Most of the hydrangeas still have mostly green leaves; macs are still "awake" with signs of wanting to start dormancy soon. Annabelle went dormant ahead of the pack. Mid Nov to early December is when they start going dormant and leaves dry out over here. All blooms have obviously browned out. I have noticed an increase in yellow leaves in macs and oakleafs.

The plant nurseries in the area should make a killing in Spring however, since many trees and shrubs in the area look sad or dead. I expect many people will just to have to replace them.

On a car trip to South Carolina last week, most of the trip within Texas showed plenty of dead trees on either side of the freeway. Some evidence of fires too. Only when we got close to the border with Louisiana did things improve some. But the area near Tyler, Longview and Marshall -where it usually rains a lot- looked stressed out.

I would hope that all the state has had as much rain as we have had here but that is not the case yet so I wish us all more rain and no La Nina:

http://droughtmonitor.unl.edu/

Luis

Luis, my heart goes out to you and your fellow Texan gardeners. It is a horrible thing to see ones plants just wither and even old trees die. I agree with you, enough La Nina already!