I am new to hygrangeas and I don't know anything except the are beautiful. I bought a few plants that had blooms on it, and when the blooms started to fade I cut them off and put them in a larger pot. It's been two weeks and the leaves are drying up and falling off. They have new growth but they look so strange. They look like sticks with little green shoots. I have them on the east side so they get morning and noon sun. Is this normal?
Loren
HELP! The leaves a falling off
Loren, can you send a picture? Why did you transplant the plants, lot of stress.It's basically growing season. Hydrang. like to stay moist, not in burning in sun all day? You're in Ill, what's the temp right now (day time I mean)
Coby
Hi Coby: Today it was about 85 degrees, sunny. The plants are on my patio against the house. It gets morning and noon sun. The past few days have been humid and hot. The other day we had a bad thunderstorm that dumped over 6 inches overnight.
I transplanted them because there were in those tiny pots, flower shop size. I transplanted them into 5 gal. pots with Miracle Grow potting mix..the new type I think it was Moisture control?
Did I do a NO NO?
A picture would really help if you can post one. Did you have the plants in the same location before you moved them into the bigger pots? If you had them inside before or somewhere that got less sun, then it could be sunburn, whenever you're going to be moving a plant to somewhere that it gets more light it's a good idea to let it get used to it gradually, otherwise the leaves will turn pale and get crispy and sometimes fall off.
My other thought based on the large pot + the thunderstorm + the moisture control potting mix is that they've been overwatered, when that happens sometimes the plant will look a bit wilted, then the lower leaves will turn yellow, eventually the other leaves will follow but it usually starts with the lower ones.
How big were the "tiny pots, flower shop size"? I don't usually buy plants like that so I don't know if they're sort of like a 1 gallon pot size or if they're more like a 4" pot. If they were about a 1 gallon size, then potting up to a 5 gallon pot is fine, but if they were smaller than that then the 5 gallon pot may be too big and that could be contributing to the problem, it's best to pot up one size at a time, otherwise there's way too much soil to hold water and not enough roots to take up all the water, so you can end up overwatering without even really realizing it.
There are other possibilities as well, if none of these sound right to you then please try to post a picture.
LeSnow, don't panick yet. I would say give it at least a week to settle in. I was wondering though whether the pots were so small (or the plant too large already) that the roots were all clumped up, you know a tight white ball of roots? And like Ecrane said when you pot into much larger pot that'll give the plant some stress also.As strange as that may sound. My experience with hydrang. is that they can take some abuse, so I would leave it for now, keep moist but just make sure it doesn't drown.
Just out of curiosity, does it still has it's name label,. do you know which Hydr. it is?
Hi! It did not have a tag on it. It was a beautiful periwinkle blue with very dark thick leaves. The stems seem very weak and sorta weaps. I think the original container was like a quart. I planted them into a big pot cause I wanted to be able to control the ph so it would have blue blooms. They probably will remain in the pot unless the pot breaks or worse..they die on me. :(
Goodmorning Loren,
Any change in your hydr. that keeps on loosing leaves?
Sorry, I took a mini camping trip. I came back and they look worse than ever. The new leaves are drying up. The other plants leaves are dried and brown starting from the edges. there is also brown/black spots on them. I feel like giving up and go back to growing weeds, I am good at that...lol.
Loren
Was someone watering while you were gone? The leaves drying up and going brown sounds like it might not have been getting enough water. The other possibility is fertilizer burn, I know you were trying to put stuff in to change the pH and make them blue (or was that a different hydrangea than this one?), is it possible you put too much in?
If there's any green left on them, I would put them in a shadier place for a while, for an un-stressed plant your morning/noon sun should be OK but for a plant that's under stress especially if your weather's hot it may be happier somewhere that it only gets a pinch of morning sun at most for a while.
Hi ecrane..before I left I soaked all the plants and put them against the east wall. The ones that are dropping their leaves are not the blooming one. The one that is blooming is Endless Summer and they are still blooming pink but starting to have a bluish tint (or maybe wishful looking).
The sick ones get morning and noon sun. But for two days it has been under an umbrella. Should I take a pair of shears and cut off the dry areas of the leaves that are left? I would make me feel better when I look at them. I just don't know what to do for them.
Loren
Any chance you can post a picture?
Until they start to recover, I would put them somewhere that they get mostly shade, a pinch of AM sun may be fine but sun all the way until noon is going to be more stress than they need in their current condition. As far as the leaves, if there's no green left at all you can take them off, but if there's any green left then leave them alone. And the other thing is to be super, super careful about watering--don't let them dry out but don't let them be too wet either. Make sure you stick your finger down in the soil regularly to see if it really needs water or not. I have a feeling there have been at least a couple times when they were way too wet (the thunderstorm and possibly the soaking they got before you left for a few days) so you need to be extra careful on the watering, especially if you still have them in that really big pot.
Thank you ecrane, They got soaked lastnight. I will keep them under the umbrella out of the noon and afternoon sun. I would take a picture but I can't find my camera. :-(
Please watch the soakings, I know you can't control when it rains but you really need to keep it out of the rain if you can (or if you can't, then you really ought to repot into a pot that's a more appropriate size for the plant) I think that all the soaking may be what started the problem off in the first place, the more often that happens the less chance they're ever going to recover.
TulipLady and ecrane, Thank you for your concern. I have decided to leave them alone against the east side of the house. They were doing well in the house in those little pots, but, they wilted everyday. I have thought about bringing them back into the house and putting them under the skylights. I just worry about A/C drying them out.
But for now I will just leave them alone. Maybe I am just fussing with them too much. I was having more success growing weeds that I thought was pretty flowers until someone told me what they were...lol.
I will keep you all posted if they improve or get any worse. And maybe I will take a pictures when I find my camera.
Thanks so much,
Loren
Sounds good plan. Give it a few weeks to settle and calm down.
Good luck.