My Oakleaf Hydrangeas bloomed beautiful white flowers in June. In July they all turned brown and dry as if it was autumn. The leaves remain green with new growth of green leaves. They face East with afternoon sun. They are 5 years old and planted in amended clay soil. We are in a drought in Illinois but I check the soil for moisture and don't think they are too dry. The new growth is very healthy. No sign of fungus on leaves. Any advice would be appreciated. Thank you

Other vines for shade here are Sweet Autumn Clematis for good coverage, and a mass of tiny white blooms in late August-September that are very fragrant. A lot of clematis will grow in partial shade and some of the best are viticelli hybrids, like 'Polish Spirit'. Jackmanii is another. Honeysuckles will take partial shade, too. Some of the newer cultivars are great bloomers, especially of the ssp. Lonicera sempervirens. Dutchman's pipevines are wonderful vines for shade but may take awhile to become established (about 2 years). After established, it grows very fast. Aristolochia macrophylla (syn. durior) has HUGE heart-shaped leaves, and the flowers are shaped like meershaum pipes. It is also a host plant for the pipevine swallowtail. A. tomentosa has hairy foliage and stems as the name indicates, smaller foliage, but is nonetheless a nice vine, too. Crossvine (bignonia) will do well in partial shade and has the same tubular flowers as trumpet creeper (campsis) without being quite as aggressive. Climbing hydrangeas are beautiful, but it can take up to 5 years for them to really start growing. You can grow ornamental Kiwi vines (actinidia kolomitka). Insignificant flowers, but the foliage is mottled green, pink, and white. Japanese Hydrangea vine (shizophragma hydrangeoides) 'Moonlight' is similar to the regular climbing hydrangea, but the leaves are infused with silver - gorgeous! Some of these hydrangea vines take many years to become established, but you can supplement them with annual vines in the interim, like antigonon leptopus (coral vine--hummingbirds love it); some morning glories will tolerate partial shade. Is your exposure total shade??? I think the Aristolochia or pipevine for the back area is the best idea. They are hardy and will eventually cover the entire area. These are old fashioned cottage garden type plants that southerners used to use for shade on their porches. Confederate Jasmine is another nice foliage vine that blooms with fragrant white blooms in spring. It is perennial. Carolina Jessamine is another perennial vine that has yellow spring blossoms. Hops vines are nice, too, and hardy, and are a host plant for the beautiful Question Mark, Commas, and Mourning Cloak butterflies. You will have lots of butterflies around. Forgive me, I'm a butterfly and moth fanatic, so I'm always thinking of ways to encourage people to grow butterfly-friendly plants. It is best to start these vines from rhizomes that you can order over the Internet, from places like The Thyme Garden. They are very inexpensive, too. I have given you a link to vines that grow in shade. Aristolochia is not among them, but it is just now making a comeback, so it is early in the game for some garden writers. Also, I don't recommend 5-leaf akebia, which can easily get out of control, nor do I suggest the fig because of its marginal hardiness here. American Bittersweet is okay (but not Chinese bittersweet) if you have lots of room for it to romp, and make sure you get a male and female plant in order to get the berries. Otherwise, it is virtually carefree except for some pruning, and I've never seen any pests on mine. Wouldn't recommend the climbing bamboo (smilax) either as it is hard to get rid of once you have it, or the Chinese and Japanese wisterias. The common periwinkle is very invasive as well. Other than those, there are some good suggestions with photos. Susan Here is a link that might be useful: Vines for Shade

Hi Olga, and Happy New Year. Since I work I'm not able to pamper my plants, just what I can do on the weekend, and I've tried almost every hydrangea offered in this area. I have only 2 left. My favorite is Blue Bird which is a mauvey pink/blue lacecap. Mine gets a lot of morning to early afternoon sun and it blooms great. It's about 3 feet tall. It is near a sprinkler head, so gets generous water. By July/August the leaves get a little sunburned because of the afternoon sun, but it's finished blooming by then. The other is a variegated leaf lacecap I picked up at Walmart some time ago. It gets dappled shade - doesn't bloom all that great, but I keep it because the large variegated leaves brighten up the shady spot it's in. I'm sure with pampering some of the others would do well here. One thing I've noticed about the variegated one, because it is in a protected area, it will tend to try to start growing out when we have a few days of nice weather in winter, then it will freeze again, and regrow again and freeze again and I think that tires it out so much it doesn't bloom well. The Blue Bird is not protected, it's on the northeast side of the house, and it doesn't go thru that trauma. Good luck. Hope others can give you some more ideas.

You probably got hit by a late frost that zapped the flower buds or more common, temperatures stayed warm for a while so the plants broke dormancy and then temperatures tanked markedly below freezing (thus zapping the flower buds). West of you, we too had limited flowering from macrophyllas that bloom only on old wood. But the ones that rebloom had summer flowers; the paniculatas and arborescens, which only bloom on new wood, were not affected and bloomed fine. Oddly, oakleaf hydrangeas, which only bloom on old wood, were not affected and had plenty of flowers. Watering deeply the night before, mulch and winter protection are things that could help in future years. This year, in Tupelo, the second problem happened twice, after the middle of Jan and Feb (both times, temps were warm for a while and then temps finally crashed to the mid 20s or lower).