Hello, puzzelmaster24. Wilting is a common behaviour of new hydrangeas that are not established. They wilt when they do not have enough soil moisture, when the temperatures are hot or when it is very windy.

The cause (when talking about 'new' shrubs) is due to a small root system. The roots cannot absorb water as fast as the large leaves loose moisture. The plant's reaction to that problem is to wilt the leaves; this looks awful but the plant looses less moisture through them because the curled leaves have less contact with sunlight.

What to do? Most of the time nothing but, until you get used to this, here are some suggestions:

* CHECK: insert a finger to a depth of 4 inches and make sure that the soil feels moist. If it feels dry or almost dry then water right away. If the soil feels moist or feels wet, take no action.

* MULCH: maintain about 4 inches of acidic mulch up to the drip line or a little further away from the drip line.

* WATER: if the wilting episode looks extreme, water immediately. But most of the time, the shrubs will recover by either sun down, bed time or by the next morning. If the plant is still wilting by next morning, water it (half the usual amount of water). Water the soil around the base of the plant, not the leaves.

* BE CAREFUL: Try to control the urge to water as soon as you see the plant wilting. Excessive moisture can cause root rot and this would kill the plant.

In about a year, the plant will have established a good root system and the episodes will be limited to really hot times during the summer or when there is a wind advisory. If you know a very hot or very windy day is coming up, you can water the night before. Or you can move the pot to a more protected location one that one day.

Luis

I am so glad this post is still here. I feel better about my Hydrangea now.

I bought 2 ES at the nursery early this spring and i placed them where they got full direct sunlight. i noticed that both of them werent thriving very well (they didnt tell me in the nursery that theyre partial shade). so i transplanted both of them where they only get morning sunlight. am in zone 6b btw and we get hot and humid summer here in TN. The other is thriving very well, i was able to resuscitate i before it die. But the other ES isn't. Some of the leaves were burned possibly due to direct scorching sunlight. The stems turned brown and it's wilting a lot of times so i put some stake on it. It had some buds on it that will probably start to bloom soon. but it just wilts a lot of times esp in late afternoon. Today i found that the buds had turned brown (well some of it), some of it are already pink. I don't know what to do with it. I applied some root stimulator to it as what the lady from the nursery said, but it did little help. You know that its not thriving well because i bought 2 of those at the same time and the other one is taller, has a lot of buds that ae starting to bloom, and the leaves are greener. will this die eventually?? What can i do to save it? and bw am new to this forum hing...how d'u post pictures here??? so you guys can help me sve my hydrangea.

Fannie, you will probably get more responses if you ask your question in a separate post rather than at the tail end of someone elses.

As for posting pictures, go to photobucket.com and set up a free account. Their directions are easy to follow. Once you have uploaded your pics to photobucket, run your mouse below the pic--there will be several different kinds of address codes. You want the HTML code. Click on it and then come over here and paste the code in the message box. You can type before it and after it if you wish. Then click "PREVIEW" and you should be able to see your pic and make any editing changes needed.

Good luck.

Kate

Just planted this a couple days ago what am I doing wrong my poor little plant

That's either heavily over or under-watered. The soil should be moist but not wet and the plant should not be in full sun.

It is just suffering from transplant shock.

Try maintaining 3-4" of mulch up to the drip line, maintain the soil as evenly moist as you can (no periods of dry then wet then dry again, etc). Then make sure it is not windy and give it additional shade for a few weeks until it gets used the extra sunlight in that location (it is more sunny than the spot where the plant nursery kept it and where the wholesaler also kept it).

Morning sun until 11am and shade afterwards will perk it up. However, in its first Summer, keep an eye for these wilting episodes. As the plant becomes established and its root system develops more, the wilting episodes should be reduced although they may always occur in the worst part of Summer.

Note that if you see a wilting episode and the soil is moist, the hydrangea should recover on its own at night or by the next morning. Thus, make a habit to ck it often on this first year and give it 1 gallon of water if it is wilted and the soil feel dry or almost dry._

Becky Wehner, if it's in full sun, move it to a spot that gets morning sun only because big-leaf hydrangeas don't like the heat of afternoon sun. Their leaves can't replace the water that evaporates fast enough.

As Luis said, remove the grass and mulch from just outside of the stems to outside of the edge of the shrub. Grass competes for water with your shrub.

Follow Springwood's watering directions - damp but not soggy or dry when you stick your finger in deeply. Be sure that water is getting to the root ball since sometimes the root ball dries out even when the plant is watered; the potting soil is mostly peat which doesn't rewet easily.

I often put a garden chair over a new planting to give it temporary shade for the first couple of weeks.