Does the area not drain well?

I always think that heavy rainfall after installing a new plant is a blessing- nothing like a good soaking of natural rain to settle a plant in and give it a real head start. As long as your soil drains I would not worry, although with what I read about Texas floods lately might make this year just poor luck for new plants.

As far as the branches/blooms drooping that is simply gravity and an aesthetic problem. If the branches look close to snapping you could prune them back but that would mean sacrificing this years blooms. If they do break they will grow back.

I know it is distressing and if you are beside yourself you could always put them back in their pots and under cover until this deluge passes. I think they will be fine in the long run and would not do that unless they are in standing water, but it's your call.

Thanks for your suggestions and reassurance cearbhaill. When I planted them I added rose soil with organic matter in it to help with the draining because with do have very clay based soil in Houston. The branches don't look close to snapping they are just more or less laying down under the weight of the blooms. They probably just aren't strong enough yet. My area just isn't very lucky these past few months with rain. We keep getting hit the hardest. I will keep watching them and seeing how they are draining. Since I already planted them is there anything I could do to help with the drainage?

"Since I already planted them is there anything I could do to help with the drainage?"

Unless you can redirect how the water flows in your yard, no. You could always replant them higher in the hole with the rootball a bit above grade sort of in a mound, but only you can tell whether you need to do that or not.

Someday when you have the time do an amateur percolation test- dig a hole a foot deep and wide and fill it up with water and let it drain out. Then fill it up again and time how long it takes to drain- if it is under three to maybe four hours you have good drainage. I think you will be surprised that it does drain, and then you can relax about your plantings.

FWIW I had rain so hard night before last that even my huge miscanthus grass is lying flat in a circle, squashed looking like an elephant sat in it. My clethras, ditto, and also a huge paniculata "The Swan." Heavy rain is just that- heavy. Almost everything was droopy and sad looking- that rain must have really beat down hard.

But again- nitrate filled rainwater is the best water for plants and while it can make them look droopy it makes them feel great.

Good luck with your weather down there.

Thank you so much. I really appreciate all your suggestions. Hopefully everything perks back up when all this dreaded rain ends. We had a reprieve for most of the evening last night and into the morning so hopefully that has helped them.

I agree. As long as the soil drains well, just let them be. The only time it would bother me would be if the soil does NOT drain well. In that case, I would temporarily put them in pots and replant when drainage is improved. Perhaps by adding expanded shale or those crystals that absorb water too. Oakleaf hydrangeas are the ones that always come to mind first though since they can catch root rot under wet conditions quickly and I once lost an Alice thataway.

Rains should be petering out between today and tomorrow so keep and eye on things. If you notice you neighbor shows up to visit in a boat then it may be time to take drastic action! Hee hee hee!

Thanks for your suggestions Luis. I will do the finger test maybe sometime tomorrow and see how they feel. I just feel so bad for the poor stems that are weighed down by the blooms. Is it ok that some of the stems are laying down? Will that harm them? No boats yet and it seems we haven't received any significant rain yet today.

No, it will not necessarily hurt. Some people actually even cut them off to reduce the weight on the relatively speaking new stems and so the plant does not have to keep the blooms watered. It does however make it easier for snails and slugs to get access to their favorite morsels (the leaves).

Things partially cleared up today but got hit by a stray shower on the way home. Still changes tonight and tomorrow. But sunny afterwards. Hope you too catch a break.

Thanks for the information Luis. I appreciate your help. We got a heavy but quick shower around 3:30 and back to sunny skies for now. I did lose part of a bloom on one of my mopheads and a little lace on my twist and shout but nothing horrible. Hope the sunny skies continue.

Me too. I saw the sun for an hour or so last weekend and my eyes winced like asking what the heck is this bright stuff!

I see dark clouds now so I started picking my peaches today; I discovered that one branch had died while "I was not looking" and decided to get the peaches off the tree. Besides a few had fallen down and the pooches were enjoying the peaches if you know what I mean. Hee hee hee. But, hmm, may have to see if that is a watering issue or something else. Sigh....

I have two lacecaps and the larger one is unnamed variety (was supposed to be a Nikko Blue; bought it when not in bloom and SURPRISE!!!!). It blooms on old wood and has basically finished blooming for the year. The fertile blooms are almost all history, the sepals are turning upside down.

I may have to get me a lacecap rebloomer near that one to get more bloomage. I was thinking of T&S as it is sold locally and is easy to find. Got time for quick question?

Do you deadhead/prune the lacecaps blooms when they begin to fade in order to trigger new blooms? Or do you just wait for the new blooms to develop/open on their own? If you deadhead/prune, how often does it take T&S to produce new lacecap blooms from the date of deadheading/pruning?

Luis, these are my first ever hydrangeas so I have no idea what they are going to do. I read that you can deadhead lacecaps, but shouldn't deadhead mopheads. I'm not sure how long it will take for new blooms to come up or if any will, but I'll keep you posted.

That's fine. No problem, thanks. My lacecaps tend to "self clean" like ovens. Their blooms are mostly fertile flowers and, once the bees do "their thing", the blooms fade and disintegrate on their own. I am just trying to get an idea of exactly how much time it takes to get more blooms on reblooming lacecaps. On reblooming mopheads, I usually see new-wood blooms after a month or so but, I was curious to see if someone had a more precise figure.

Gotcha Luis. Well I will let you know if I see progress on mine. Step one is to keep them alive hehe

Update: some of my flowers have browned and wilted so I took them off. I noticed my blushing bride mophead has some blooms that are drooping and look like they may be wilting. They are turning a green/tan color. The top of the soil feels dry but when I put my finger deep in there it feel cool and not wet but also not dry. I haven't watered since the rain of the weekend but Saturday we got a little and basically none Sunday or yesterday or today. Should I water them? I did notice some round little brown/red edge spots on some of my leaves and read this could be a fungus from the leaves getting wet. I have removed those leaves. I'm feeling pretty let down that I had to deadhead a bunch of wilting/browning blooms. The rest of the leaves look good and green. Hopefully this means they will survive.

Some of my blooms are also turning green-ish. It is part of the color changes that they will go thru as the blooms fade and end brown. Some shrubs' blooms turn green faster than others. And you could have some white ones sprinkled with some green ones (the white ones will also turn green eventually) within the same plant.

Water (1 gallon in Spring and 1.5g in Summer) only when a finger inserted to a depth of 4" feeks dry or almost dry. Some wilting should be expected in newly planted hydrangeas and also when temps zip into the hot summer temps. But do make sure you have ample mulch: 3-4" up to the drip line.

Some browning in the edges can be caused either by insects or by need for water. If it needs water, you will see the browning growing more inwards as time goes on and the problem is not corrected.

Luis

PS - BB is a rebloomer; if you cut BBs blooms, it should take that as a signal to develop new blooms so do this when they begin to brown out. Not that you will get blooms overnight, of course but the website's say it encourages reblooming... maybe with one caveat: provided the temps are not excessively hot (say, think 100s or something like that)

Thanks Luis. I see some reddening on the very edge of some of the petals. I gave them some water tonight just in case. Too much sunlight? What is exactly considered the drip line on these, the outer edges? I have mulch all around just not very close to the base stem. How far away from the very base is it ok to put the mulch? I just don't want to go too close

I have not "seen" red on leaf edges before. Maybe it is browning and the shade looks red???? Pure guess.

Too much sunlight would make the leaves in direct contact with the sun turn all yellow, including the leaf veins while the other leaves would remain dark green.

The drip line would be an imaginary line around the widest parts of the shrub.

I try to place the mulch about 1-2" from the crown.

luis, thanks for your help. The reddening/browning is on the actual bloom petals not the leaves. Those are green.

I just wanted to say, that since these are new plantings, you may or may not see much rebloom this season. Many shrubs spend a lot of their energy the first year growing roots at the expense of flowers and sometimes all above ground growth. So while you may see good growth and rebloom, if you don't, it's OK. They plants' behavior the first year doesn't reflect what it will do in the coming years. Likewise the blooms may last longer in future years once the plant is established and when the weather is less extreme. (Apologies if you already know this, but often newcomers get discouraged if their plants don't look like images of established plants.)

NHBabs, thanks for your input. Yes, I am aware that they may not rebloom. I am only concerned with the current health of my plants. Since I am seeing some marked changes in the leaf color and the state of the blooms themselves, I just want to make sure that they are still thriving.

We just had our yard landscaped, we have two Hydrangea, they told us to water twice a day for 2 weeks, then once a day for a week, so far it has worked, but the last couple of days has been really hot, and the blooms are dying and the leaves as well, could this be caused by the heat or too much watering, also have had high winds for a couple of days with the storms that went through? should I cut off the dead or hope they come back. we live in missouri, and they have put river rock around the plants they put in our landscape. Need advice

Georgia, best start your own thread so folks see it.

If these plants were professionally installed I would contact the installer- presumably there was a guarantee?

Do you know what type of hydrangea?

Photos would be really helpful.

You need to water the hydrangeas based on how the soil feels. Stick your index finger in the top few inches of the soil. If it's dry or almost dry water liberally, if it feels moist or wet do not water. This is my thread, and now my plants are a year old. I watered them much more often the first year (about every other day or more often) Are your plants shaded from the afternoon sun? These plants are very picky I have found. Just make sure you always feel the soil and don't go by what your landscaper says since your plants are unique to you and your soil. You may experience some shock when you first plant them too

Summer has arrived and that stressed and dries out some hydrangeas more than others. Newly planted one typically are most water and sun sensitive on year one so please keep a close watch on them thru these hot days. On future years, they should be established enough to not need so much coddling.

Pictures and the names of these shrubs definitely would help. And the times when when they get sun. When was this lanscape project complated? Also, plan on watering more in the summer per plant.

I find that rocks around hydrangeas sometimes cause the stems to wither and bend as the rocks. In hot days, rocks absorb and then release heat so, depending on how close these rocks are to the shrubs, you may want to separate them further. Not really a good combination (heat producing rocks and water thirst hydrangeas). ;o)

A temporary lawn chair over them in the summer is usually suggested for new mopheads. But even paniculatas might also benefit since they can eventually take more sun than mopheads.

Luis

Old thread, but I thought I'd post what works for me. I bought some plastic garden netting from our Canadian Tire (6' x 12') that you'd use for a trellis. Prior to a heavy rain, you wrap the tree. After the blooms have dried a day or two you can remove it. Any droopy blooms can be cut and put in vase - they're beautiful and last a good few days. My hydrangea limelight is about 5 years old and a VERY heavy bloomer.