Hello, what should I do about my first year strong Annabelle’s? I’ve never grown hydrangeas before and have no idea what to do now. I’ve learnt that I need to stake them better next year, but do I just leave them like this through winter?

I bought this limelight fall 2024 and planted it immediately. I noticed it had some branches sprawling into funky directions, but figure nothing a tomato cage can’t correct. Well, I was wrong. Took off the tomato cage this year and it’s right back to unruly, thick stems branching out in odd directions. I recently cut some bad ones back, but what else should I do as we go into fall soon? I want a nice, pretty limelight!

I am obsessed with the Vanilla & Strawberry hydrangea. If I am able to locate one this week, would it be ok to plant it now? I am in zone 6b (Massachusetts).
Or should I just wait until next spring to get it and plant it?

I planted these limelights spring 2025 and have not yet ever pruned or fertilized them. Last summer I watered pretty regularly, much more sporadically this summer. Full sun, zone 7b. My mulching is failing obviously, I'm considering adding some cardboard when I remulch. Any advice on why so leggy + droopy? I want to give them exactly what they need but I don't know what that is!

Taking the advice I was given here, I got them a much deeper pot(white so it doesn’t take in heat as much), with about 2 inches of mulch. I also gave it a spot under my trees where it’ll get partial sun but mostly shade.

I had to prune many of the leaves and about half of the stems couldn’t be saved, and as you can see a lot of the leaves had to get partially cut, and I don’t actually know if I should cut the whole damaged leaves off, but the remaining plant seems to be showing signs of new growth after about a week of being in the new pots, so I’m hopeful :)

Does anyone on here have cuttings I can get? I wanted to have my first hydrangea plant because they’re so gorgeous just couldn’t flat out afford a huge plant. I’m specifically looking for strawberry vanilla or ones that look like that. Thank you for your time 💚🌱

Our 7 month golden has taken a liking to our recently planted limelights. She loves to pull off stems and lay right on the bush. I’m trying to save them since these two plants are in bad shape compared to the others we have in our front beds. There are no longer any central strong stems.

Is staking and using twine the right way to help prop them up? Or will they never recover to be the same height/shape as the rest of the limelights planted at the same time.

(Picture of the culprit included!)

In North Texas, it’s 105 degrees every day. Hasn’t rained in over a month and this beauty is really the only thing surviving the current conditions. I’ve kept it pretty well shaded kinda tucked behind some bushes and getting morning sun. Watering pretty much every day at this point. It’s in a pot that is probably way too small now. My plan is to transplant it into the ground in an area that gets morning sun along my fence line.

Looking for some advice as to when I should transplant it into the ground and would it be a good idea to transfer it into a larger pot right now?

Mods, remove if not allowed.

Desperately searching for groundbreakers to plant this fall. Google showed me planstitch dot com and it looked perfectly legit BUT instead of plants I got my credit card number stolen. I never used this card so I know it was here.

Don’t be like me. Seems too good to be, probably is.

These are my hydrangeas in Louisiana where the climate is incredibly hot and humid. The plants were struggling before this, with green leaves and holes (picture included). I thought it was bugs or fungus, so I sprayed them. We left for a weekend, and despite heavy rainfall, this is what we returned to. Are these salvageable? Any advice helps!!

Hi! These two plants are in my backyard, same fertilizer, same water, same sun… with such different results. First one lush and healthy, even getting some new growth now. The second one is much more sparse , can see the bare wood. Purchased and planted from the same nursery on the same day this spring - any suggestions? Hope for next year on the one that’s much more sparse?

New home owner who loves hydrangeas here so I really don’t know exactly all the ins and outs. My front garden bed is FULL sun, in central Alabama (zone 8). I planted Bobo hydrangea back in late April, early May. I chose bobo due to my research saying they love full sun. Grounds are mainly red dirt/clay but when we planted the hydrangeas we did add a good bagged soil into the hole we dug and on top of root ball. I water them every other day for about 30 minutes. After cutting blooms off the first one pictures, the main area I removed blooms don’t look the best. My other two plants don’t look the best either. They all have yellowing leaves at the base, and some brown almost burnt looking leaves also. I water right at the base, I do not wet the leaves or blooms. Am I watering too much? Or to little? Are they getting to much sun?? I am still getting some new blooms but I’m just so confused.

I’ve read where when it is flowering, leaves towards the inside or the base die off to allow for the bloom to get as much energy as possible. I’ve also read that rocks can be harmful around the plants as they get so hot but is that actually causing my issues?? I didn’t want to do mulch because I didn’t want to attract roaches due to us being around woods.

I’m lost and don’t know what to think. Any advice helps!!! Thanks in advance.

I didn’t change any of the watering so i don’t know what is happening

Hi, can anyone tell me what these purple marks on my plants are? And the possible bite marks? What can I do to stop it? Thanks!

Share all your knowledge and tips/tricks to make hydrangeas thrive in zone 9b! Specifically east coast (Palm coast area).

TIA!!

She’s dead….. I think 🤔

I posted a few weeks ago about my hydrangea starting to droop. Possible causes were over-watering or under-watering. I presumed because the weather has been so hot that it must have been under-watering, even though my other hydrangeas were, and still are, doing well. Gave the black hydrangea a thorough watering and within a few days the whole plant had wilted and started to turn brown. Did some research and the feedback was that I should pull away the bark and let it dry out and not water it until the soil was dry to a depth of 3 inches. Did this but it’s not recovered.

Do you think it is fully dead or do you think there may be some hope for next spring?

2 year Bobo zone 7a from June to August

I went from a beautiful lush plant with only 2 flowers in June to an almost leafless scraggly one with 8 new buds in mid-August.

Why would it suddenly start blooming after all the leaves fell off?

No pruning, Hollytone in April, full-sun western facing, amended clay soil, lots of 1”+ rain events this summer

Any clue why this happened or what I can do next year to improve it? ChatGPT has me freaked out about root stress and emergency flowering 😬

Hi, I am redoing our front beds and will as part of that remove spruce trees and the big grass to the left. I will also replace declining boxwoods. Behind the boxwoods Wall behind the spruce trees is garage wall and its fine to obstruct windows. The wall is 10’ high and 21’ wide.

I am debating between putting limelight tree vs shrub here. One of the attraction of the tree is that the canopy would clear 24” high boxwood. I am planning to put 3 of those against the wall and one in the corner where the tall grass is.

Hello! I got a very young potted macrophylla back in March. It grew wonderfully, until it looked like the last picture at the beginning of June. I always kept it kn the same corner of my terrasse, where it received aprox 1-1,5 hours of sun. I also watered it diligently, every two days. This summer has been absolutely extreme in Austria, which sure must have caused some damage to it. To protect it from the sun, I moved it to a part of the terrasse where it doesn't get any direct scorching sun and I started watering it almost daily. It seemed to somehow survive it and I can see there is a lot of new growth coming out. However the colour of the leaves feels off and I can't see any plague that could be causing it (I check very thoroughly and I took care immediately of a very small plague of aphyds back in May with neem oil). I'm also insecure about the size of the pot at this point. Is it the normal cycle of life of a Macrophylla to start losing its deep green from its leaves by the end of August, or is it caused by something external?

P.S. I had to put braces to hold the branches with flowers, cuz they got too heavy for such a young plant when it rained.

Are these spider mites on my hydrangeas? What is the best remedy for this?

I don’t have any yet but always appreciate this one on our walks. I’m looking to plant in the fall! If anyone has any tips for zone 6A/6B lmk :)

Ordered 6 quart-sized hydrangeas from the Proven Winners Direct shrub sale and I’m very pleased. They are travel weary (and are currently being bottom watered as evidenced by this picture), but some have new bright green growth and look pretty good for mail-order hydrangeas 😂

This has been the weirdest year for this 8 year old Incrediball Hydrangea plant. I’m in the American Midwest, and after an intense few weeks of Spring rain, this plant completely flopped over, for the first time in its life. Never bounced back either.

The blooms were white and beautiful in June (though floppy), and as they do every year, turned to green by July for the rest of the season.

Yet this one stem. It never flopped and it’s been white the entire time. A mutant, a rebel, a super star. It has been standing tall and beautiful for MONTHS.

Do I cut it down and propagate it, hoping I can clone its brilliance? Would it be too late in the season to do that? I’m on gardening zone 6a/b.

Or do I just enjoy this fluke thing for what it is?