Lack of water will do it. Root rot also will produce those symptoms. Windy days can also make those shrubs wilt. To address the first problem, mulch with 3-4" of acidic mulch a little past the drip line. Water when the soil feels almost dry or dry. If the wilting episode looks extreme, water immediately but otherwise, wait until nightfall or better yet, next morning. Established plants will recover by then. If the plant has not recovered by next morning, water. Wilting is a natural response of all large leaf shrubs when they cannot absorb water through the roots as fast as they loose it through the leaves. Root rot is caused by fungal problems and too much watering. Its symptoms are similar to those of lack of moisture. To keep this problem away from your garden, locate the shrub in well draining soil with organic compost & water when the soil is almost dry so the roots are not kept in wet soils for long periods. Once this problem starts and the roots decay (turn brown-ish instead of white), it may be impossible to stop the damage. It is difficult to tell which plant can overcome this and which ones cannot. So provide constant soil moisture. Make sure the soil does not feel wet (except when it rains or you water) and mulch. There is little one can do about windy days except use a wind break, move the plant elsewhere or add some extra water the night before a wind advisory has been issued on the news. Does that help you Amy? Luis

I agree completely with Ginkgonut - neighbor #1 planted a, so named, 'Annabelle' that turned out to be 'White Dome' but beautiful bush with very lovely powderpuff domes ... neighbor #2 planted hers in a shaded E facing (gets some AM sun) didn't grow as tall as mine but heftier & loaded!!! Mine a (2nd season) in a slope, N facing foundation bed ... a giant & full of saucer sized pom-poms. We went through one record-breaking 'Killing-Winter' as well as a Spring & early Summer of mostly days of rain/storms, but when the sun shows up, they were unbearably hot/steamy/scorching days ... cooked many a beautiful foliage & those tender young blossoms! Â:( I'm glad I learned in this forum, about installing a reasonable size cage on Annabelle, she would have splayed all over otherwise! Good luck in resolving your Annabelle problems! Â;)

A picture might help. A small, recently planted Annabelle might just need a few more years to produce larger blooms. It is called getting established. It is hard to give an opinion of its size versus "it's peers" without a picture. Sparse and lanky might suggest it needs more sun, the best of which is morning sun and afternoon shade, or dappled sun. You can feed it a 1\2 to 1 cup of organic compost, composted manure or cottonseed meal. Or a chemical fertilizer with a NPK ratio of 10-10-10. Just once in Spring but before July. I usually do it when they leaf out or a few weeks after my age date of last frost.

Hi Ken, First off, thank you for your reply. To answer your questions I am actually based in Norway, southern coast but that might not tell you anything :) What happened was I had one large hydrangea at the old house and it was doing really well. I dug it up with as much soil as I could and moved it to the new garden, a 15 minute drive down the road. At the same time I split it to get two hydrangeas (the original is still pretty big and the part I took off it is pretty small). The third I bought at a garden centre so it was in a pot, never been in the ground. The weather has actually been fairly decent since I planted them, mild and sunny for the most part. They were dormant-ish when I moved them (they had small buds emerging but no leaves). just can't understand why they all look the same, when one was in a pot to begin with and the other two in the ground. I also want to point out that I've planted a mock orange about a metre away from where the hydrangeas are and it is doing really well, no sign of yellow, sickly leaves. So I am baffled.... In between the hydrangeas I have some (at the moment small) ammi majus, and they also are bright green in colour. I'm just unsure whether to leave the hydrangeas in and hope for the best or dig them up and put them in pots until they recover. Or cut them all the way down where they are planted?