elliottkaty, I planted my ES several years ago. For the first couple of years, I had to deep water them every single day, sometimes even twice a day, to keep them from wilting during summer! How much have you been watering them? Your leaves are wilting, but then they still look like a healthy, green color from the photo - is that correct?

I also have some bugs eating my ES foliage this year, but not to the same extent as yours. I just kind of ignored them and then new, healthy leaves have since grown out. So I am not sure if I am of any help here... but I suspect that no long-term damage has been done here. I look forward to hearing from other experts about this here.

Regarding the size of the plant, it seems like your ES is still focussing on growing out flowers this year, so perhaps that's why they are not growing much bigger in size. I remembered that when mine grew bigger after the first couple of years, most of the growth was for the foliage, and not for the flowers, so that year, I did not get many flowers at all. Anyway, for the first few years, it's most important for the plants to develop a strong and deep root system, rather than to grow more leaves and flowers. So that's why the deep watering is so important, rather than the size of the plants and the number of flowers.

I hope this helps!

get a sevin spray and see if that cut down the bites...looks like some sort of insect problems...i dont have any major insect problems with my hyrangeas but i do spray my plants aggressively (we have a major japanese bettle problem in the area, most of my neighbors' jap. maple tree been defoliated down to the veins...yikes)...as for the wilt, get some water, but overall, not too bad...you should see some of the real real nasty wilts if you put an ES under mid-day hot August sun in Jersey ...you have pretty much the opposite problem most new ES owners have - you have blooms but the plant stays small...most people have a LOT of green foliage, big ones too, and very robust plant with no blooms...so give a big kudos to yourself...most people put too much nitrogen in their fertilizers, and maybe you have less of that...i like to force my ES a bit with high phosphate fertilizers early in the season (May) to get some blooms...overall, I think you have some good looking plants..no problemo...just control those nasty insects...(some people have deer problems with their hydrangeas, I have not had any with mine [yet] so i dont know if there is a deer problem or not)...