What's wrong with my hydrangea?
Copperdog
Posts: 519
in Fruit & veg
my hydrangea has always done well and I always do a gentle prune back to first buds in April but this year quite a few of the stems were dead as no flowers or leaves came at all to the ends so I cut them to the base of plant hoping they would send up some new stems but nothing at all
.. The very few stems left did seem ok but now half of them have turned red and the flowers are wilting badly?? Will it overwinter or is it a case of getting rid of it? Thanks everyone
0
Posts
Is it thirsty? They do like a lot of water but don't want to be drowning.
Have you fed it with a high potassium fertiliser that promotes flowers? That might help. They don't like high nitrogen feeds.
"We don't stop playing because we grow old; we grow old because we stop playing." - George Bernard Shaw
Hi Obelixx, thanks for your reply. I must admit I haven't fed it anything ever and it gets its share of water as it is in a bed off the patio so also when it rains it soaks onto the bed...the one in the front garden that always does brilliantly is huge almost 2m all way round is in a south facing front garden and bakes in the sun all day with very dry soil and i Have never especially watered or fed it...just luck i guess now
. I had a cotoneaster that turned its toes up last year with glowing red leaves and generally looking as if it was dying slowly and wondered if that was fireblight? I had to take it out completely. i have a Sorbus that looks as though it is doing the same thing and think might be connected as when I looked up info think they are all from same family that suffer from that disease?? still not sure on the hydrangea tho. Really appreciate you taking trouble to reply. Have a good weekend.