definitely shock ... shock from transporting home. shock of transplanting a HUGE ... FLOWERING.. plant ... in this case.. your gut reaction for instant gratification.. led you to a plant that was too big ... and not really at a point in its life.. that it should have been transplanted ... yes watering is an issue.. your media.. looks to peaty ... do not water again.. until your finger.. stuck one inch down.. indicates the media is drying ... [did you wet the media PRIOR to planting??] i would remove all the flowers .... trace down the stems .. and find where there are new flower buds ... and remove about half of what is above.. yes.. it will seem you are slaughtering it.. but what you are doing is reducing the 'canopy' .. and the flowers.. BIG water drains.. to give the roots time to start pumping water.. so as to help the plant recover from the shock ... the future is all in those tiny new buds.. not the spent flowers ... finally ... do NOT give up hope... on some level.. i think you bought the wrong plant.. for your gardening dreams... too big.. too many flowers.. and the TIMING was all wrong for transplant.. lol.. where we all started ... had i seen a display of plants like this.. i would have picked the one with ALL flower BUDS .. so that in a few days.. the flowers would open.. delaying gratification a bit.. and extending my period of enjoyment ... and being an annual.. i probably would not have repotted it ... i would have let it give me a short show.. a few months with deadheading ... and then thrown it out ... if you want long lived potted plants.. you need to move into perennials ... or houseplants grown outdoors ... trust me.. we all started here .. so dont be discouraged ... EVERY experiment.. leads to knowledge ... ===>>> AND!!! .. you found us ... WELCOME!!! ... we like to share knowledge ... ken ps: lesson #1: NEVER transplant a plant in flower .... too much stress ... the first thing sacrificed is the flower.. its useless to the plant to try to make seed [the whole point of the flower] .. if the whole plant is threatened ... they simply abort ... the disturbed roots simply can not process enough water for the plant.. hence the drooping ....

Hello, Joopster. I noticed no mulch under on the soil under the tree so please make sure to add some organic mulch, up to 3-4" to the drip line. Your idea to use sticks is a good one as these tree-form hydrangeas tend to collapse under windy conditions. Once the root system is big enough, the need for them will disappear but in the meantime, protect them with those bamboo sticks or metal stakes, basically whatever you can find that will keep them from collapsing when the wind blows. If the area is not windy, the bamboo sticks may be enough. If it is windy, consider something more sturdy. These guys have a big chunk of the weight on the top. Add wind/storms and those moving stems/flowers.etc will cause problems if not staked. Same thing happens to standard roses. Feel free to water whenever the soil feels almost dry or dry to a depth of 4". Once the plant goes dormant, you can further reduce waterings to once a week or once every two weeks. And of course, stop watering when the ground freezes. Don't bother fertilizing now, not just because it is so late in the growing season for you, but because the potting mix probably already contains those round fertilizer pellets. Fertilize in Spring instead and enjoy the blooms you now have! Use a 1/2 to 1 cup of compost, composted manure or cottonseed meal only once in the Spring. Then use weak fertilizers like coffee grounds, iquid seaweed and liquid fish thru the end of June to prevent the plant from staying active instead of going dormant. By the way, the blooms can be deadheaded (not pruned) or left for winter interest. I leave them on the plants and they always manage to disappear by magic sometime after January/February/March. Luis

Thanks again everyone :) He did come back after dinner, 2 hours but who's keeping track? (oh yeah, ME!!!) I'm just happy that progress has been made, the island is at least in place and he plans on scribing it in tomorrow morning, the dishwasher opening has been corrected, and half of the drawers are installed. There is still alot to be done before Wednesday but he says he will be back in the morning so I am hopeful. Sue~ I am focused on what has to be done before the counters need to be installed, I was just ranting about what all needs to be done before it is finished...but thanks for the suggestion because sometimes I do need people to help me see the forrest through the trees :) Desertsteph~ Sometimes I think people underestimate just how stressed out a mother of two young boys can be, there are days that I would feel bad for anyone that had to deal with my breaking point, lol. Florantha~ You are so right about men responding better to men than women. That is a lesson I learned when our addition was put on and I dealt with a contractor who wouldn't let me make the call on any decisions (we aren't using him now, thankfully), he would ask me a question and I would answer him and he would say to me "ya, I think I'm going to call your husband and make sure." It would drive me insane!

Since I didn't have a hibiscus in a pot, I thought I'd use another plant to illustrate the effects of consciously pinching a plant in order to change its growth habit from long/lanky to tight/full/compact. The reaction in plants is the same from plant to plant, so it hardly matters what plant one uses for the illustration - whatever's handy works just fine. Another 'pinched plant': Al