I doubt you've done anything wrong to this plant :-) Transplanting a hydrangea in the early part of November is only going to hasten the very natural seasonal yellowing and dropping of foliage. Honestly, I'm a bit surprised to see any foliage left at all. And a bit of spotting on the leaves now is nothing to be overly concerned about either - most likely some combination of transplant, seasonal and/or weather stress. It should be fine come spring. In zone 6 it is a good idea to provide Hydrangea macrophylla with some sort of winter protection to prevent excessive dieback and potential loss of next season's blooms due to cold damage. If you search the archives of this forum, you'll find a variety of posts that discuss this topic and recommend methods.

I see mechanical injury, maybe in the nursery, maybe from wind (I have several plants that must endure our wind and lvs look like that), maybe from user. I also see maybe first hints that plant has a nutrient deficiency, maybe from what ian says, maybe due to garden soil/climate interactions. The brown spots might be from water - either the salts in the water or maybe fert in the water. As long as your soil has adequate organic matter and no deficiencies and you can provide adequate water and nutrition (and the plant doesn't mind your climate) it'll outgrow these non-fatal conditions. That plant will take some work to make happy in that place. Dan

Hi Mr caledon Looks like a generally healthy plant that is starting its fruiting phase and coping with a combination of issues: Dry/soaked uneven watering, nutrient transport to developing tomatoes and perhaps not hardened as well as you could have. But nothing we haven't all seen and in my case quite often. If you have iron and epsom salt hit it lightly with them, if not, increase the fertilization around 20% if you are controlling that and be sure to water more evenly from now on ... and as usual, not to over-water. my 2c PC

Hello, Margie. A picture of the leaves would help determine clearly what you are seeing so see if any of my suggestions can help you identify the cause of the problem... In the summer months, yellow leaves can be caused by watering issues (watering too much such that the roots cannot absorb much oxygen) so you need to get watering under control. You can use a soil moisture meter for this or you could just insert a finger into the soil to a depth of 4" to see if the soil feels dry or almost dry. If it does feel dry-ish then give the soil around the shrub 1.5 gallons of water (you can go down to 1 gallon in Spring, Fall and Winter). Also, try maintaining 3-4" of organic mulch to help with this issue as the mulch will minimize soil moisture evaporation somewhat. But, yes, leaf yellowing in the summer can also be caused by too much sun. If the plant is getting too much sun, only the leaves in direct contact with the sun will turn yellow (the ones underneath and protected from the sun will remain green). This gives the shrub an odd look. If this is what you see then you may need to temporarily protect it thru the end of summer and then decide if you want to transplant it to a more shaded location. 30% shade cloth can be used. But feel free to construct anything that will provide shade (if this is the cause of the problem of course). There are mineral deficiencies that can also cause yellowing of leaves. If the soil lacks nitrogen, the old leaves can start turning yellow. A cheap soil test kit that checks levels of NPK or a full-fledged soil test can help determine if you have this problem. The cheap soil test kits are available at plant nurseries. I feel that these gizmos are not quite exact but hey, all you care to know is if the minerals are too low or too high so in case like this, I do not worry about how precise they are and I just try to find out if N is low. Near the end of the summer for me, there is the infamous iron chlorosis; but you really can have this issue at any time in the growing season. Iron chlorosis causes the leaves to yellow out but the leaf veins remain dark green. So if the leaves are all yellow, this is not your problem. Adding acidifying compounds corrects iron chlorosis. You can use aluminum sulfate, garden Sulphur, greensand, etc. You can also use liquid chelated iron compounds. The liquids deliver faster results but the others last longer. Either way, the leaves take a while to self correct. A soil pH kit can be used to regularly monitor this problem (say, every 2 months or so) and these kits can be purchased at most plant nurseries. The red tinges may be the result of the leaves getting old or about to get a few leaf spots (a few is not a big issue). Water the soil and never the leaves. Then monitor the spots for changes and post again if you think there is a large problem with the leaves with red tinges. Luis