They will not die but they are very uncomfortable. They are suffering from transplant shock and the start of the summer.

Transplant shock: their roots got cut to fit into those plastic pots. In the greenhouse and plant nurseries, they got shade, water as needed (once or even twice a day), fertilizers, etc. Ah the good life! ;o) Now they are getting sunlight, windy days, facing warm or hot temperatures and they are outside. The amount of water consumption goes up but the roots cannot keep up . Even when you increase the water, they are still unhappy but recover overnight.

Wilting happens when the roots cannot absorb water lost via those big leaves. Increase the amt of water to summer levels. Try watering from 1 to 1.5 gallons of water per plant and tweak so you get the top 8" of soil moist and so it lasts at least two days.

The plants get over the wilting episodes on their own without you having to raise a finger provided that the soil is kept uniformly moist. So, check them in the mornings, say around 6-8am. If they look wilted in the morning, insert a finger into the soil to a depth of 4" to see if the soil feels dry, moist or wet. Water them if the soil is dry or almost dry. Water the soil only, never the leaves and start watering from the root ball area outwards. Note: if you see an extreme looking wilting episode during the day, water them immediately. If you see frequent wilting episodes all of the sudden, research if there is competition from trees or other shrubs/weeds.

Wilting gets better in future years... when the root system has developed some more but can reoccur when it really gets very hot or very windy or both.

Mopheads perform best if they only get morning sun; dappled sun; or full but bright shade. So, no afternoon sun and no evening sun. I am not sure where are you located but, consider replanting so they only get morning sun, only get dappled sun or only get full but bright shade. While you decide that, you can provide "artificial" shade by covering them up with outdoor chairs, umbrellas, shade cloth or whatever you can find. I am unfamiliar with the soil you say you used.

Drooping or wilting parts should recover on their own by the morning, provided the soil is moist enough to obtain any needed moisture at night. So no, I would leave them alone. Blooms though, well, sometimes they tend to droop and will not recover so once in a bloom, after watering religiously, I will cut the bloom that remained drooped at all times. It does not happen often though, maybe once a year I do that or less.

I live brown flowers for winter interest but you can definitely cut them off. Just cut the petiole string that connects the bloom to the stem.

Note... advertising for some rebloomers say that one can speed the reblooming process if one deadheads the spent blooms. I have not tried it or noticed faster bloomage. Then again, I have not monitoring that.

You are not watering enough, with intact potting soil root-balls they will be as prone to drying out as if they were still in the pots - until they root out well into the surrounding soil. The surrounding soil being the original soil beyond the replacement soil you put in the holes - you should have refilled the holes with this existing soil instead. Because now you have three zones of different soils that will be affecting water movement - the potting soil the shrubs came in, the manufactured soil you filled the holes with and also the soil beyond the holes. When conditions are wet planting holes dug out of heavy clay soils and refilled with coarser textured material (such as planting mix) can actually function in the same manner as sumps, become collection points for water. Resulting in plant decline and death.

Endless Summer is a series and not a single kind of hydrangea:

http://www.endlesssummerblooms.com/the-collection

I have grown The Original ('Bailmer') and Twist-n-Shout ('PIIHM-I') for some years here, found them rather prone to wilting (we have a dry summer climate). Also the latter has been quite lacking in vigor, even though when these first came on the local market one independent retailer displayed tubbed ones that were very fine indeed, with tidy dome-like shapes and flower heads on the tips of very shoot.

All great info, and points back to not watering enough. I will give them a good bath today, and monitor regularly. Should I use a fertilizer?

No. They probably already contain those round fertilizer pellets that will last them until Spring. Fertilize then. Do not pick a stressful time like now or when very hot to fertilize either. You can also leave them alone without a fertilizer and let them feed off the decomposing mulch. Roses do require and enjoy lots of ferts but not hydrangeas. I have let them feed off the mulch several years before and it has not affected bloomage. However, if your soil is sandy then I would recommend fertilizing every year since sand has few good minerals for hydrangeas.

Clay soil

Digging a planting hole in clay soil and then adding or filling with a very moisture retentive soil amendment (the Bumper Crop) is a recipe for disaster! What you have created by doing this is just a hole that holds water against the root system for too long before draining away. It's called the bucket or bathtub effect and leads rapidly to root rots.

It is far more desirable to have worked the Bumper Crop into a very wide area - the entire planting bed where the hydrangeas are located - or just use as a mulch or top dressing. What you dig out of the planting hole is all that should go back in....no amendments!!

And you won't need to worry about any fertilizer for awhile. Bumper Crop is a super enriched compost, with added bat guano, worm castings and kelp meal so all the fertilizer/nutrients these plants will need until next year!!

scrolling through this thread. The OP said she has clay soil. I would lay off the watering - depending on how WET that soil may be right now ? then you add the root growth which just may take longer due to clay.

Now I am a little confused. For each of the plants, I filled the bottom of the hole with some bumper crop, and some of the soil from the pot. I filled in the sides with the soil I dug the plant out of, and multched the top. I just felt the soil, and the top was dry, but digging down a little it felt moist. I didn’t add any water. How should I proceed going forward?

Personally, at this point, I would leave it alone, not disturb it . How ~bad~ is your clay. AKA, when you wateried heavily, is it still mucky wet. I would try to water so that it's wet enough that the shrubs are happy but not to the point where, well, you know how clay is - hard as nails when dry, but very dense when wet. Roots just have a harder time in clay, IME

Boatload of OM helps alot in clay.

I am not sure how bad. In fact, these are the first plants I ever planted. I do know a few feet over is a Rhododundren, which has been there for years. I am learning on the fly here.

Condition of soil beyond the material that was inside the pots does not tell you where things are within this soil. If your plants are wilting, you water and then they perk up they need to be watered more often.

Organic material belongs on top of the soil, as mulch. Just like the litter layer that is on top of the soil in nature. The natural sequence from the surface of the soil to the lower (subsoil) layers is one that goes from more organic material to less, to the point where there is essentially no visible organic component. This is what plants are adapted to, and not deeply dug in, still decomposing organic matter, topsoil buried beneath subsoil (double digging) or any other such aberrant circumstance.

An exception is annual flowering and vegetable plants, because these are derived from kinds that pop up in nature on recently disturbed sites (fires, slippages etc.) where there may be high levels of partly buried as well as surface litter. Or wood ash.

Was at Homer's buying plant stakes.

A boatload of shopping carts with 2-7 Hyra's on average. Granted growers can sell them more when there is more bloom/leaves for show, but man, if only these were in the ground 3 months earlier.

Over here, hydrangeas are on sale, 30% off. Nurseries do not want to get stuck with them as they will need lots of water and it will be cheaper if they sell them off. Hee hee hee.

Here is what I would do if this was my plant in my garden. I would dig up the plant and keep all the soil from the hole except for the stuff at the bottom that was added. Then I would wash off the soil from the root ball. Plant roots are not blood vessels that bleed. and the soil that is caught in them is making an artificial pot and restricting the movement of water from the surrounding soil to the roots. Garden Gal uses the professional description of bucket or bathtub effect. When you dig the plant up, plunge it into a bucket of water - to the top of the old soil and leave it there until bubbles stop coming to the surface. Let it drain and shake any roots lose and put into the hole you dug and replace the soil. Plant it about 1 - 2 inches higher than it was and give it a good watering. The plant will sink a bit but you want it a tad higher than it was in the pot. I successfully grow, rescue and propagate hundreds of hydrangeas and this method will work.

I have watered them thoroughly, and they don't seem to get better. Is it possibly due to the lack of sun? They get dappled sun in the AM, and direct sun around 4pm on.

5 PM is the hottest part of the day, if they came out of a shaded production facility - and they look like that is the case - they may still be getting enough hot sun on your planting site to be adversely affected.

"Bathtub effect" etc. is when amended planting holes are receiving and collecting water from surrounding, unamended soil. And not when original potting soil root-balls and/or amended planting holes are shedding water to finer texture soils around them.

How hot is the ambient temp. Do they perk up overnight ? How familiar are you with your soil - you did mention clay. Don't get me wrong. It want's water. I would keep the soil moist enough but not that moist that you are making it mucky.

No, in most hot areas, they should droop/wilt during the day and recover at night. They are new, planted in the summer, getting afternoon sun + summer temps + drying summer winds and suffering from transplant shock. Then there is the clay and water retentive BC.

Feel free to block somehow the afternoon or evening sun. When newly planted, they do not like summer afternoon/evening sun but can handle it better in future years (I still ck them in the summer though).

If the soil is kept well mulched (2-4" past the drip line) and moist, they should be perked up in the morning but then again, you have this water retentive BC + clay soil combo. I always ck them in the morning (6-8am) and only water if dry and wilted.

If the soil is dry, water 1 to 1.5 gallons per plant per watering or enough to moisten the soil down to 8". Water the soil early 6-8am from the root ball outwards.

Try not to overwater with this BC as that can result in root rot and then they wilt 24/7 (all the time). Cut off the blooms if they remain wilted in the mornings. Use a moisture tester (I got mine from Lowes) at 4-8" deep or press soil from 4 -8" deep in between two fingers (if you get lots of water drops, the soil is wet and does not need to be watered again).

Even in the mornings, they are not "perky". The area around the plants have mulch, and even when I water them, it is never muddy. The water seems to get soaked up right away. They seem to be in this constant droopy nature all day/night. They have been planted for almost a month already.

Sven - I realize in your OP you said no pooling. Or you are looking at the surface for signs of. It's hard to tell from the internet.....but you did say clay.....sorta a weird balance between wet and dry with it you know. If you leave it alone and it dries, it's hard as a rock. Too much water, it get's mucky....

Easy test. Take a hand shovel , and just do quick hole dig to see how mucky or not the soil is based in your current watering practices. You can't tell this just by looking at your surface.

Might be a dumb question, but how close should I dig near the root ball?

NO direct sun! If they are then move them to a pot! Again, NO direct sun. I would pull them up, wash the roots, replant in new non organic potting soil, water till the water runs off, drain and put in shade! And, then leave it the #### alone. Water when the surface is dry till the water runs out the bottom and then....... put back in the shade. You are killing this baby with kindness. That is what I would do in my garden, but you are the manager on this project.!

Well, assuming you know roughly where your root ball is and where your watering zone is (r u using irrigation, spray nozzle, long 18-24 wand with a waterbreaker), I'd shoot for where your watering zone is and 8 inches out from your rootball -- assuming you are watering that far out ?

U do have something going on if ur saying they are wilted in the morning though. All the heat stressed plants I've seen either perk back in the late evening when the beating sun goes away or at least recover @ night

To my eyes though, you're pics don't look too terrible for a new planting and the current temps though. Your plant may have been babied in a greenhouse up until it hit the delivery truck. Now ur 3-4 weeks in a environment that is much more different

Sven -

Is your interpretation of wilting in pic 4 /5 the leaves drooping down or the stems lying horizontal ? Cause the horizontal is normal - blooms too heavy for young stems. Just to confirm we're talking the same or different thing

Mildly wilted hydrangea leaves are shown below. They can look worse as they continue loosing more moisture.

http://gibbslandscape.com/blog/files/wiltedhydrangea.jpg

A drooping hydrangea bloom:

https://maxpull-tlu7l6lqiu.stackpathdns.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/drooping-hydrangea.jpg

Hydrangea blooms that get large and weigh a lot can cause the stems to bend as shown by the large green blooms that are resting on the rocks of this picture:

http://deborahsilver.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/DSC_2835-620x413.jpg

Some updated pictures -

Sven. Per the other post and this new one....they look fine to me fwiw. Pic 1 and 2 is showing a new blossom. Stop stressin yourself over the plants. They're just getting acclimated to their new homes ya know.

Thanks a1an... Should I do anything to the blossoms that turned brown?

I would deadhead them right above a pair of leaves. I would still do the shovel/soil test based on your watering practices - just so you know how the water behaves in your soil. Watering in clay is kinda tricky compared to well draining soil.

In my last post, I wasn't quite sure if you were saying they were wilted due to the stem on the ground....which is not wilting. Just top heavy..

I just ordered a moisture meter, so that should help with watering. Also, I will deadhead above the leaves. When I first bought the plant, the flowers were large and full. Once planted, they all kind of shriveled a little, which i guess is normal. Especially, since they were prob babied at the nursery.

Sven . Spend some time reading the info on the MM. AFAIK, most cheap soil moisture meters are junk

Somewhat easy to do a shovel/wet test and use that as a baseline ---based on your watering schedule/practice.

Hi Sven -

Since I was chirping don't overwanter and make that clay soil mucky. Wanted to circle back as we just hit what looks to be a 7 day heat wave. Don't forget to keep them hydrated ;-0

Thanks. I am in NJ, and we had a ton of rain yesterday, and 90 and sunny today. I am thinking some water every 2 days or so as heat wave crawls into next week...

Can't answer the frequency for ya. Hopefully you get around to making a hole and just seeing how the dirt feels ...ya know. Water can drain in clay and water can also stay too much...

ugh - y couldn't i have "easy" soil

Sven. Take my approach. Gardening is a lifetime of learning...