Dying Hydrangeas

We never used to water our hydrangea but we now realise it needs water! The leaves have a purplish edge , so we cut those off. Today I cut off the dying flowers and hope with more watering it will revive.

Not only rained here it’s poured.

I am watering mine when they start to look as if they need it. We do not currently have a ban here, and I think a good soak is better that a drop now and then. However it has rained!!

Travelsafar we have the luxury of an automatic watering system installed in our vegetable plot, with added mulch on our sandy soil it is the only way we manage to grow anything.

I was researching the deeds to our cottage last winter and in the past the people living in our cottage had to go to a well down the bottom of the hill and along a track, not as easy life as you say. I try and support appeals for installing pipes and taps in parts of the world where people still have to walk long distances for water, knowing how lucky we are to just turn on a tap.

Thanks everyone. I do appreciate that they need lots of water and obviously have not had enough in the heatwave.

The advice I was seeking was whether to try and do surgery on them in the hope of resucitation so thanks lemongrove for a practical prescription which I will follow!

Hilltopgran re how much hard work to keep the garden alive, thank goodness we are not pioneers from the old days who had to deal with all kinds of issues when growing food for themselves.I often think i would have loved that kind of life, but this hot spell makes me rethink my little 'fantasy'!!!

My mother always poured her washing up water over the hydrangea. She did it religiously all through the summer . We have that hydrangea now

Gagagran I guess the clue to what is affecting your hydrangea is contained in it's name. Hydra = water.
We do everything like vegetable washing, washing hands or washingup and even toothbrushing in bowls and pour that used water into buckets or watering cans and use it in the garden to water anything that needs a helping hand. Even the tea pot dregs go on a rose bush!
Our problem is our new beech hedge whih is extensive - nearly 500 plants and some of it is more exposed to full sun than other parts. We have watered it all but particularly the ones which looked as if they were dying and they have started putting out new leaves much to our relief. We lifted a small Japanese maple which we had overlooked and it really looked dead and so DH potted it up in order to baby it along and I noticed this afternoon that it has new leaves sprouting too - so don't give up on them too quickly!

Me and hydrangeas just don't work together. One was chewed by every caterpillar, slug, aphid in town. I have one left that is not full of holes but the flowers don't look good .To be fair the plant might still not be old enough to be producing flowers .

Yes I have lost a small rhododendron Hilltopgran. It was tucked away and I didn’t notice it was suffering until it was too late ?

Not only hydrangeas here but Rhodendron that I have had for 25plus years were looking very sick, so OH and I have been giving them a bucket of water each. All except one and two newly planted ones have recovered. This summer so much is looking scorched I am just hoping plants recover in the autumn, but sadly I think some are beyond recovery now.

Somehow when looking forward to better weather as we shivered in the beast from the east, I forgot what hard work it is keeping the garden alive.

We bought 5 wilting hydrangeas in a Homebase closing down sale for £1 each and planted them in tubs. They’ve done brilliantly this summer but need loads of water they do droop if they don’t get watered twice a day in this weather. Give yours a good soak and I’m sure it will be fine.

Water the poor things FHS ?

Mine revive with water, I use washing up water and put it around the roots.

My hydrangeas in pots are the first to show signs of drying out by drooping. I then water thoroughly and they soon perk up. Sounds like yours are really suffering, but my bet is that they will recover if watered well from now on.

Oh Gagagran what a shame that possibly you've lost them, but perhaps lemongrove's advice will revive them. Hope so. My shrub in the pic took 22 years to grow into its magnificence, and some years (not this year) the flower heads are the size of dinner plates. I really really really don't want to lose it.

Gagagran yours sound very far gone ( for this year)
But hydrangeas are resilient shrubs, cut one stem right down, and if there is any green at all where you cut, there is still life.
That being the case, cut them all down.Water and add some sequestered iron/seaweed treatment.
Rainwater is better for hydrangeas when possible!

Sparkle - nice photos and mine looked like that before the heatwave. I would not dare show them on here now. I fear they are like the dead parrot in the Monty Python sketch. Oh dear.

I had two young hydrangeas side by side one has thrived and in bud the other was just a dried up stick they were both equal last year but the stick one has had to go not a bit of green in sight just shrivelled and completely dried up Ican only presume the healthy one has taken all the water I ve been giving them both

Oh God, it's gone bonkers. Sorry about the duplication.

Sorry, can't get photo to upload.

Gagagran I have 3 large established Hydrangeas which I'd be gutted to lose as they are irreplaceable. I am watering them every evening, and a professional horticulturalist told me that, as tap water contains chemicals and will wash nutrients out of the soil, to feed them plenty of Miraclegro once a week to give them a boost. After a scorching day, one of my Hydrangeas in particular often looks sorry for itself, but perks up overnight with this treatment. Fortunately we haven't had a hosepipe ban here (yet). I give most of the water to the roots but just give a quick spray to the leaves when the sun has set.
This is the one that needs the most TLC but overnight it has recovered.

Gagagran I have 3 large established Hydrangeas which I'd be gutted to lose as they are irreplaceable. I am watering them every evening, and a professional horticulturalist told me that, as tap water contains chemicals and will wash nutrients out of the soil, to feed them plenty of Miraclegro once a week to give them a boost. After a scorching day, one of my Hydrangeas in particular often looks sorry for itself, but perks up overnight with this treatment. Fortunately we haven't had a hosepipe ban here (yet). I give most of the water to the roots but just give a quick spray to the leaves when the sun has set.
This is the one that needs the most TLC but overnight it has recovered.

As we are expecting water soon I’m giving our special plants some water now so that the rain will penetrate better.
We do have a black cloud at the moment.

Strangely the lack of water affects our hydrangea in the back garden but not the one in the front, must have deeper roots. Now I know it will droop in dry weather I keep chucking buckets of water over it, works a treat. Amazing how much water I usually waste in the kitchen waiting for it to run hot!