Wanted to add the problem has affected new, 1 year and 6+ year old plants. While some of the same aged plants are fine. The browning starts just below the bud/bloom. The leaves just below the bloom are fine.

I did a search of the forum and saw a similar post with a response of deer urine as a possible problem. Can't imagine thats the problem here, since some of the plants are 5+ feet tall.

I do sooooo much to protect my babies from my Cincinnati Winters/Spring I hate to lose all my blooms. It doesn't help the garden club is coming to my house Monday just to see my hydrangeas. Ahhhhh!!!

Without seeing photos of the problem, it is difficult to speculate from just your description. Given the odd and very fluctuating spring weather much of the country has experienced, I would not be surprised to assign it to cold damage. Lots of folks in both the midwest and east coast experienced late spring frosts that were extremely devastating to a range of flowering plants after a very mild winter.

Buds/blooms are most susceptible on hydrangeas and the damage is not always uniform on the plant, as various conditions can affect how severe the damage is.

If this is the issue, there's really nothing you can do about it now.

The first two weeks of April included some cold nights that might have affected the blooms if the buds were opening by then. The latest sub-freezing temp (30F) in Cleveland was on April 29.

Wanted to add the problem has affected new, 1 year and 6+ year old plants. While some of the same aged plants are fine. The browning starts just below the bud/bloom. The leaves just below the bloom are fine.

I did a search of the forum and saw a similar post with a response of deer urine as a possible problem. Can't imagine thats the problem here, since some of the plants are 5+ feet tall.

I do sooooo much to protect my babies from my Cincinnati Winters/Spring I hate to lose all my blooms. It doesn't help the garden club is coming to my house Monday just to see my hydrangeas. Ahhhhh!!!

Thanks gardengal and luis_pr for responding. I'll admit the weather has been strange this year and maybe that is the problem. I'm going to try to figure out how to post a pic tomorrow. Would make problem solving much easier.

To post photos, you will need to join (also called signing up) for free a service like photobucket.com so the pictures are always accessible. When you upload the pictures into photobucket.com, you need to get the photobucket address where the pictures are stored so you can use them here in GardenWeb. This photobucket address looks like a long folder addresss in your PC, except it does not start with "C:" but something with the word photobucket.com. There are security settings in photobucket; make sure the settings are set to public or only you will be allowed to see the pictures and we will be blocked.

Once you puload the pictures and get their addresses, you need to post a message in here -as usual- and, to keep things simple, type the URL address or addresses in this part of the message like so:

http://i150.photobucket.com/albums/s111/llluch/100_4191.jpg

Other website that some people use are Yahoo, Google, etc. They work in the same way. You take digital pictures and save the pictures in your PC. You upload the pictures from your PC to the website that you join, get the folder where address where they store your pictures and paste the address in here.

^^^ Photo posting instructions above are incorrect and confusing- a private setting in photobucket does not prevent images from being displayed provided one uses the correct code in their posts.
We need photos embedded in the post- here to see without clicking or leaving the page.
Remember- if the photo does not show when you click "preview" you are doing it wrong.

I have included below a good tutorial on embedding photos in posts here.
It includes screenshots of every step and is quite comprehensive.
Everyone please bookmark it!

Here is a link that might be useful: How to Post A Picture

Thanks for everyone's help posting pics. I started another post that includes the pics.