Pacific Northwest Gardening: What\'s up with my hydrangea?, 5 by 8zoner

8zoner wrote:
Hi all,

Looking for some input. I have two giant blue mophead hydrangeas that were here when we bought this house 10 years ago. I\'m sure they are much older than that. Every year, they put on an incredible show.

This year, there is a mass of buds as always but they are very small. I\'m also noticing more leaf discoloring than usual.

I\'m sure it will still look lovely. Has in fact already started blooming, but I\'m confused about why this happened. Weather related? We had a pretty warm winter.

I did nothing different in terms of pruning. I always cut off the old blooms in early spring, being careful not to damage the emerging buds.

Any ideas?