skip to main content

Hydrangeas newbie - PLease help Potted Hydrangeas

8 years ago

Hello:

I am very new to gardening and planting flowers. I went to Lowe's last week and they had a bunch of Monrovia Mini Penny hydrangeas on sale due to the seasons coming to an end. I bought three containers and placed the hydrangeas on the east side of my house that gets mostly shade, but i noticed that the sun comes to the east side of the house between 3 and 4. Long story short, i came home from work and the leaves was burnt and wilted bad. So I moved them to the west side of the house where I actually have some hydrangeas planted in the ground. Same thing happen, I came home from work and the leaves was wilted and burnt again.

So my final move was to the porch. The porch definitely gets some morning sun and it looks looks like its getting filtered sun / shade? They sit behind some hedges at the moment which I do not know if that a good thing or not. I came home from work today and the leaves wasn't burnt or wilted.

1. Can you all tell me if you think this location is ok for the hydrangeas to thrive?

2.Do you think my other hydrangeas will survive with the burnt leaves on them?

3. Looking at the pictures do you think I can move them off the porch and place them at the front door? They should get the same amount of sun / shade?

photos attached

Thanks so much.

Sort by:Oldest

Comments (2)

luis_pr
8 years ago
last modified: 8 years ago
Looks like they are suffering from transplant shock. Very common on newly planted shrubs and expected when you plant new ones in the middle of the summer. If they get too much sunlight, the leaves in direct contact with the sun will turn all yellow, including the leaf veins. So, these guys look like went from a comfortable shady spot at Lowes to a more sunny and hot spot in your garden. Going forward, I suggest you transition them slowly into sunny areas: say, buy them in the summer, keep them in bright shade until summer temps have come down and plant them in the Fall.

When the big leaves on these guys started to loose moisture faster than the roots could absorb water, the leaves wilted. As this condition got more intense by not being used to the hot outside, the leaves dried out from the edges inwards and some sections now look brown. The wilted leaves should normally recover on their own if you keep the soil moist. Usually they recover either by nighttime or by the next morning. If they have not recovered then test the soil to see if it needs water. But keep a close eye on the soil moisture levels in the middle of the summer and water as often as needed.

Do not forget that pots get hot when hit by either morning or afternoon summer sun.

Completely dried out leaves can be cut off but I would leave the partially browned out ones. If it bugs you, you can squish the brown out parts so they are not so obvious. Dried out leaves will not recover but the shrub sometimes generates new ones either now, in the Fall or as late as Spring 2016.

Any location where they get morning sun until 11am or so (approximately) is probably ok. Locations that get some sun in the afternoon might work too but you have to "test" them to see and mid-July was probably a jolt to them. In the northern states, they can get full sun but, I still would not "introduce to the outside" in the middle of the summer. :o)

I had one hydrangea that lost all leaves due to watering issue (not potted but planted in the ground). This happened near the end of the growing season. I maintained the soil moist and well mulched. It looked worse than yours. While it did not produce new leaves that season, the roots were fine and made it leaf out in the Spring like nothing had happened.

Enjoy, the Mini Penny Hydrangeas. I almost got some myself at another store.
JK JK thanked luis_pr
JK JK
Original Author
8 years ago
Thank you so much! I believe the Mini Penny are designed to do well in container pots since they are in the dwarf family.
Related Discussions
Hydrangea help please PLEASE- totally new at this.
Q
Comments (5)
Krysten, the best sugestion would be to touch base with the previous owner and duplicate whatever she tells you to do as best as you can. Lack of blooms can be caused by weather that kills the flower buds, pruning after the flower buds have formed (they develop starting in August-September) and lack of moisture. There is little one can do about the weather so make sure that, if you have to prune, do so before August; and try to maintain the soil moist, not wet, not dry, as best as you can. Maintain 3-4" of acidic mulch up to the drip line of the shrub to help with moisture and cold/hot weather. Trying to get a specific color or color hue out of your hydrangea is a totally different problem. The acidity or alkalinity in your soil will determine the color that you get. If your soil is naturally alkaline, the blooms will be a shade of pink. If you add aluminum sulphate, the soil pH will change and the blooms will develop a purplish color at first. If you continue increasing the acidity of the soil then the blooms will turn blue. Since they are already blue then it follows that you need to add lime so the soil will be less acidic and more alkaline. That eventually triggers a change from blue to purple and then then to pink. But be aware that this is very difficult with hydrangeas planted in the ground; potted hydrangeas are easier to deal with. About the color purple..... the type of purple that you get as the plant changes from pink-to-purple-to-blue or from blue-purple-pink also depends on how many red pigments the plant actually has. The more it has, the more of a deep purple you get. What that means is that the type/variety of mophead hydrangea that you have will make a difference when you try to get a deep purple. Your plant may produce a light purple when shifting colors. Varieties that make nice deep purples are Glowing Embers, Royal Purple (also called Mathilda Gutges I think), Merrit Supreme and others. The previous owner can tell you what types of purple she got and how easy/hard it was to achieve them. Luis
...See More
Hydrangea help for newbie
Q
Comments (4)
They're the same as found at garden centers. Yes and no :-) Many potted hydrangeas are greenhouse grown and forced into bloom at an early age and under rather controlled conditions. While these ARE the same types of hydrangeas found in garden centers, the specialized growing conditions they experience sometimes makes them difficult to transition into a landscape setting and it often takes them a couple of seasons to adjust to this type of setting. The primary issue is that if this is a type of macrophylla (and the word 'blue' in the remembered name would indicate so), then the correct overwintering processes need to be observed to enjoy any flowering in your zone. Typically, unless one of the newer, increased hardiness and remonant types of macs, these kind of hydrangeas bloom on old growth and in zones 6 or lower, require winter protection to ensure no cold damage to the dormant flower buds. Cold damage to dormant buds can result in lack of any flowering, although leaf growth may be lush :-)
...See More
Please help identify this hydrangea.
Q
Comments (2)
Looks like it could be Alpengluhen or Glowing Embers. It's anybody's guess, but they are very common in the trade....yg
...See More
Need help with potted hydrangea's
Q
Comments (5)
Do you know if the hydrangeas are hardy to your zone? If they are, feel free to plant them when the fall temperatures arrive. Feel free to deadhead the flowers now or wait until the blooms all dry out as the plant goes dormant in the fall. I usually take no action and, by sometime in March, notice that all leaves and most blooms most have disintegrated or fallen on their own.
...See More

Related Stories

FLOWERS Why You Should Give Hydrangeas a Place in Your Yard

By Laura Gaskill

The exuberant mop-headed beauties evoke dreams of an endless summer by the sea

FLOWERS AND PLANTS Hydrangea Arborescens Illuminates Garden Borders and Paths

By Curtis Adams

This long-blooming eastern North American native shrub finds a home in landscapes around the world

SUMMER GARDENING Houzz Call: Please Show Us Your Summer Garden!

By Annie Thornton

Share pictures of your home and yard this summer — we’d love to feature them in an upcoming story

PETS 6 Ways to Help Your Dog and Landscape Play Nicely Together

By Marianne Lipanovich

Keep your prized plantings intact and your dog happy too, with this wisdom from an expert gardener and dog guardian

GARDENING GUIDES Great Design Plant: Snowberry Pleases Year-Round

Bright spring foliage, pretty summer flowers, white berries in winter ... Symphoricarpos albus is a sight to behold in every season

GARDENING GUIDES 11 Perfect Plants for a Moonlit Garden — in Pots

Create an alluring after-dark aura on a patio or deck with container plants that glow white under the stars

LANDSCAPE DESIGN 6 Suggestions for Harmonious Hardscaping

By Jay Sifford Garden Design

Help a sidewalk, driveway or path flow with your garden design, for a cohesive and pleasing look

LANDSCAPE DESIGN Green-Only Gardens Draw the Eye and Soothe the Spirit

Use plant and foliage variety to create a monochromatic landscape as visually pleasing as it is calming

DECORATING GUIDES 9 Stylist Tricks for a Decorator Look

By Christine Tusher

You don’t need to be rolling in cash to pull in compliments for polished, eye-pleasing rooms

SHOP HOUZZ Houzz Products: Spring in the Garden

Have even more fun in the garden this spring with handy potting benches, outdoor accessories and tools from the Houzz Products section

Sponsored

More Discussions

Transplanting Hydrangea

0

Need info on Hydrangea Delft Blue

5

Overdose aluminum sulfate

6

Hydrangea bobo vs. hydrangea little hottile.

2

Looking for white hygrengea in 6b

1