Hi IMP,

If the plant perked up and looked better within a few hours of being watered, then it probably was needing water.

However, if it looked the same or worse, it didn't need that drink of water after all.

Oakleaf hydrangeas like soil that is medium-wet, which to me means moist soil that never really totally dries out, but not extremely wet soggy soil. Unfortunately, this year there has been a surplus of rain, as you mentioned, and the plant may just now be showing damage as a result of the prolonged wet spell.

One of oakleaf hydrangea's characteristics is that it can endure fairly dry soil and periods of drought much better than other types of hydrangeas. Unfortunately this also means it is more susceptible to root rot if its roots' sit in soggy, wet soil for a prolonged period of time. So, how well does the soil drain where your hydrangeas are planted?

Also, if your temperatures have spiked significantly the last week or two, it could be feeling a little heat stressed since it has been enjoying a cooler, more moist summer until now. It is not unusual for any plant to wilt when it goes from cool, cloudy, moist conditions to significantly hotter and sunnier weather. With this kind of heat stress-related wilting, the plant should perk up overnight with no help from you or the water hose. However, if the wilting is still there the next morning, then something else is probably going on.

Did the leaves turn their usual fall color more or less overnight? Was the first day you noticed the change in foliar color also the same day you noticed the wilting of the foliage?

Dawn

Pat,

I think a lot depends on how large they were when planted, and how long they have been in the ground. For example, if they were planted from 1 gallon pots they will take longer to bloom than if they were planted from 10 gallon pots. They should bloom by their fourth year in the ground if not sooner, even if they were quite small when planted.

Hydrangeas bloom on old wood, so this year's blooms would come on limbs that grew last year. You have to prune them as soon as they finish blooming each year, and not prune them again until after they bloom the next year.

I think hydrangeas will bloom even if they have a lot of shade, but I am not sure how much sun they actually have to receive.

Dawn

My Oakleaf is in very deep shade and was covered with blooms this year (sorry, OKprairie, darn it!). When I bought it, it was in a 5-gallon pot, so it was fairly large.

Now, that said, I think if you have had yours for a few years, and that it was in a gallon pot (I don't think they sell smaller ones at the nurseries here), it should have bloomed by now. Sometimes, unfortunately, you just get a dud that doesn't and will never bloom. Don't know why, but it's happened to me before. If I have a plant that hasn't bloomed, but has gotten to a reasonable size, I just yank it. Not worth spending the water on it if it's not going to perform well. That's the time to replace it. Next time, you might try to pick out one that has buds on it at least, so you know it has "blooming genetics". I don't know if they do this with Oakleaf Hydrangeas, but a lot of companies propagate via "tissue culture" now because they can propagate tons of them that way. It makes me wonder if the genetics are skewed on these plants sometimes, though, and every once in awhile a "genetic mistake", if you will, occurs in the process.

My oakleaf hydrangea is planted among lots of trees, and lots of tree roots, like hackberry and elm, crawl in and around the soil with the OH roots. I can always tell when mine needs water, as typically the leaves droop, the foliage looks a bit pale, etc.

To be honest, I think some of my plants think it is fall already, too. My asters are starting to send up bloom stalks, which shouldn't happen until September! I think all the cool, rainy weather we had for such an extended time, has affected the "clocks" on a lot of plants.

Susan

Susan,

I think the weather is tricking a lot of plants too.

I have noticed that the liatris that grows wild in our pasture is getting ready to bloom, and it normally blooms in mid- to late-August, and sometimes not until September.

I also have noticed that some of the poison ivy that grows alongside many people's fencerows is looking exceptionally healthy, but some of it is nevertheless turning red as if it is already autumn. It's not nice to fool Mother Nature! lol

And, after a relatively quiet spring and summer, coyote-wise, they are starting to leave their dens and roam a LOT more at night, which we don't usually see until the little ones are a little larger....like maybe sometime in August.
Judging from the little piles of evidence they leave behind, it looks as though they are mostly living on wild plums right now. I hate it when the coyotes start taking the pups out hunting 'cause the bunnies and other small animals (including dogs, cats and chickens) start disappearing. I do like listening to their chorus of howls around sunset, though.

Dawn

Well, my oakleaf hydrangea did come in gallon pots, and the one I have had the longest is only a couple of years old, so I will leave it for now and keep hoping. It does die back completely in the winter, so I'm not sure how it can bloom on old wood. Should it be protected somehow so it won't die back or will it stop dying back after it reaches a certain level of maturity. Those I have seen in Tulsa and at the Oklahoma Gardening garden are huge and surely don't die back every winter.

Pat,

Are you saying that is completely dies every winter and that the limbs are DEAD or just dormant?

It should not be dying back in the winter, only going dormant. If it does actually die back to the ground, you are, of course, losing all the 'old wood' and I don't know how you will ever get blooms?

This one has me puzzled.

Maybe Susan or someone else who grows several types of hydrangeas will have an idea why it might be dying back instead of only going dormant.

Dawn

Well, maybe my memory is faulty or I didn't look closely enough or I'm getting it confused with something else, but it seems to me it dies all the way back to the ground and then sprouts new growth in the spring. That's why I wonder if I should be providing protection - or if, as I said, it's just still an immature plant. Still, how can it get more mature if it dies back every winter? The same happens with my butterfly bush - except that the butterfly bush blooms - just doesn't get as big as I had expected.

I know that butterfly bushes often do die back to the ground in our climate, so that doesn't surprise me. Oakleaf hydrangeas, though, should grow at least 12-18" per year, and ultimately reach a height of 6 to 12' depending on the cultivar type. I think they are supposed to be winter hardy to zone 5, or even to zone 4 with lots of protection. They like moist soil, even in winter, and do suffer if exposed to strong north winds. Still, I don't understand why it is dying back to the ground each winter.

I hope someone who grows hydrangeas more successfully than I do (my soil is all wrong for them) here in Oklahoma will respond to your post. I don't think the oakleaf hydrangea should be dying back to the ground. However, I wonder if the preceding two years of drought that we experienced in 2006 and 2005 weakened the plants?

Dawn

I wondered about that, too (the drought). I'm also wondering if I am just wrong and am thinking of something else that died all the way back. That is quite possible. Good to know about the expected growth rate, too. Hydrangeas are new to me, but I am really taken with the oakleafs after seeing them in different places. And my conditions should be perfect - in and among the hackberry trees and in shade most of the day, as Susan described hers. Thanks, Dawn.

OKprairie - are you cutting them back at all? If so, DON'T! You don't need to, the branches will produce new foliage next year and also next year's bloom (they bloom on the previous season's growth). Oakleaf hydrangeas are "deciduous". They lose all their foliage, but leave their beautiful peeling reddish-brown bark for winter interest. I love looking out the patio doors during the winter and seeing those beautiful branches, not too far from my contorted mulberry branches.

I feed mine with chicken manure and Espoma's Holly-Tone fertilizer, too. But, they will also do fine without any.

What kind of plants are growing close to and around your hydrangea? What kind of soil? Are you in OKC?

Susan

Hi, Susan - I am in Stillwater. The hydrangea is on my creek bank, under a chinaberry tree and in front of a flowering quince and mature privet with vinca crawling around underneath. There's a really nice columbine nearby that has done very well. The soil is clay but drains well. I have the hydrangea mulched with cardboard and wood chips. It is an overgrown area that I'm trying to tame. I think - now that you describe what it should be doing - that there were sticks left last year, but it's not mature enough to be showing much winter interest yet. Makes more sense now that you say the leaves die and leave the wood. I have fertilized just this year with cow manure and maybe some coffee grounds. It is putting out new growth. I have not cut it back at all.

Thanks for your attention to this. Is it too late to fertilize more at this point - or is it even necessary? I would like to see it take off more in growth. I bought this one from TLC year before last and have two more in the same general area but more shaded by the house that I bought this year at Lowe's. All are putting on new growth, although they are all also mottle with that reddish brown fungus or whatever that they get. (I looked it up but can't remember what it is now. Didn't seem to be terribly harmful.)

Thanks for the responses-sorry it has taken so long for me to reply, but I haven't been able to log in lately. Hum??

My OLH bounced back after I watered it well. I'm guessing that it is so close to the tree that it wasn't getting the same amount of moisture that the others were getting.

Doggone weather. I have had numerous heuchera die and a hellebore just rot. The plants around them look fine. I'm thinking that large trees just make gardening more challenging.........just what I need.

Yes, those trees will really soak up the moisture faster than your shrubs and perennials can take it in.

OkPrairie - you could fertilize now and then don't fertilize anymore until next spring. But, I would do it quickly, unless you just fertilized it within the last month. If so, just try to mulch it with some pine needles or pine straw, and that should help until you can give it a dose of fertilizer or manure again next year. Overfertilizing can do more damage than not fertilizing at all.

I'm leaving the flower heads on mine this winter, too. They look so nice in the wintertime. It is planted about 20' away from my contorted mulberry. The CM just looks really good in the winter when you can see the branches. It's a good 16-18' now. It's a fast grower, too, so I suppose I'll lose it to the Oklahoma winds one of these days as well. But for now, I'm enjoying it much more than the Bradford pear!

Impatience, my heuchera has done better this year than ever before with all the moisture we've had. I had Raspberry Swirl (?), a Tiarella species, and a seed-grown heuchera that I planted out this year (grew from seed last year). I also planted another epimedium rubrum this year as a little groundcover next to my hellebore (lenten rose), hellebore foetidus, a typhonium groundcover, couple of Aristolochia serpentarias (groundcover) and epimedium Wushanense hybrid. All are looking really good! I couldn't have asked for a better year to start new plants, really.

Susan

Susan,

I, too, have some of my heuchera (probably 25-30 plants) and and hellebores (15 or so + numerous babies) that look just fine and the tiarella look ok too. Some of the hostas look pretty good as well-the ferns are just in heaven. But, the plants that have died are practically touching some that are doing fine. Who knows.

I thought last year that xeriscaping would be the way to go. ;) Wouldn't have worked this year.

Impatience, isn't that the truth? I planted a lot of natives this spring - a LOT! But, not all of them are drought tolerant. I planted things for the butterflies, moths, and birds, as I am turning my yard into a wildlife refuge! LOL! Do you have hellebore foetidus? I just planted mine last year, and next year they should start blooming and reseeding. If you don't have any, I'd be happy to share with you. Both hellebores seem to be tolerating the moisture very well. However, mine are planted pretty close to my fenceline under trees, so it doesn't stay moist too long. Also there is sand in the soil around that area as well, so drainage is excellent. Now, this is good in a wet year, but in dry years, I have to water them a lot more.

It's hard to say what caused the death of your plants. Some things are just a mystery and will remain a mystery. I don't think even the botanists know everything there is to know about why a certain plant behaves a certain way.

However, if your plants that are next to the ones that bit the dust, begin showing similar signs of dying, it could be a fungal root rot or something, and you might want to move them quickly, or treat them with something to deter it.

Susan

I have the most beautiful healthy Hydrangeas but they never bloom.. This year I did have a couple of big colorful blooms.I have had my plants for years & they had large blooms on them when I bought them. I love plants but don't know much about how to take care of them. Most do well in spite of me. Is there something I could do for them now?