Recover? They will, very likely as these Limelights are pretty tough shrubs. But they are not used to being outside, where the conditions are not even close to what the wholesaler gave them. Normally, the problem(s) is caused by soil moisture, sun or windy conditions out in the garden. Summer just makes things worse on Year 1 but as they become established, these issues should go down. I have seen many Limelights also loose leaves near the bottom of the stems even when established. However, I am actually surprised that you said that the soil is moist because, with no mulch in your picture, I would have expected the soil to dry out easily (especially if the area is windy). How often are you watering? Try giving them about 1 gallon of water per watering, mulching 3-4" up to the drip line and see if they get over this transplant shock.

Thank you for getting back to me! Reason they are moist is because I have been watering them once to twice a day to make sure they stay moist. I will put multichannel around them and hopefully that will help the situation out a bit. Thank goodness they are hardy shrubs! Fingers crossed!

Does anyone have photos of their yr 1 hydrangeas compared to yr 2? I would love to see what their growth rate is like.

I have a hedge of LL that I planted last year. All of them bloomed, all of them lost inner leaves, and all of them had a few spots on leaves. This year they have doubled in size, or close to that, after I pruned them to about 18in this March. No loss of leaves, and no spots yet. I figure some of this happens when flowers are developing and growing.
I planted another this spring and I can take a picture later that will show the difference of 1 year. There are also threads here that show the changes as well, some even 5-6 years down the road.
I wouldn't worry about your hydrangea. I would water deeply once a week, and I would mulch the area well. and of course, Enjoy!

@steppskie thanks so much for your comment, it is reassuring knowing that they will all turn out okay I just have to get through this first year! Would love to see pictures of your second your hydrangeas to compare the difference between the first year. Thanks again!

Oh also I was going to ask how far you have planted them apart. I did about 4 feet, hopefully that is sufficient. I love in zone 3 so I am not sure if they will get to their full height potential here.

Breanna - I don't have a 'Limelight', but I have a couple of other Hydrangea paniculata varieties. My H. p. 'Quickfire' was planted as a tiny 6" rooted cutting. After two growing seasons here it is at perhaps 2 1/2' tall. After another 2 growing seasons, it was over my head.

The shrub just to the left of the spiral trellis is H.p. 'Pinky Winky' at about 2 1/2' -3' tall.

Here the same plant just about exactly 2 years later with the same 5' tall trellis moved in front of it. I hadn't yet pruned off last year's flower blossoms, the brown near the top of the plant, so you can see that it reached about 6' tall and wide two years later. It's now (another 3 years later) about 8' tall by 12' wide.

I haven't pruned either one except to remove spent blooms, so you can see how quickly they grow. I find them fairly fast growers initially, but then they slow down as they approach their potential size. I don't think that full-sized H. paniculata cultivars are plants that would be easy to control the size of through pruning.

(My apologies for the photos' quality - they are cropped landscape views made with an older low-res camera.)

NHBabs- thanks so much for sharing your photos, those are wonderful and I cannot believe how much they have grow in a short period of time! What zone are you in? Also was year one a little rough for any of your hydrangeas. I also have a quickfire and it seems to be doing great so far.

A reminder about QF. Do not prune in the spring - only after flowering. Spring pruning affects the blooming somehow. When I did that it didn't flower at all. Pruning in late August I now have 200+ blooms coming on a 6x6' shrub!

Springwoods- thank you for letting me know! I didn't know that about them at all so I would of been in for a nasty surprise come next summer! And wow 200 blooms! I bet it's gorgeous! How many years have you had it?

Normally you do not have to worry about pruning paniculatas in the Spring but QF is amongst the earliest blooming panicultas so... it can be risky to prune it, especially when the shrub decides on its own that Spring is over and it is time to generate flower buds! Ha!

I don't prune my paniculatas at all other than to remove old flower clusters in spring since I planted them where I wanted the height and width. It's been a while since I planted these, but my memory is that the Quickfire was quite slow to get started, but that was my fault for letting it sit for a while in a too-small pot before planting. I planted them in good soil (I amended the entire bed with some old manure so it's the classic moist well-drained) and mulched them well to keep soil moisture even during dry spells since they are in a spot that it's a hassle to water. Like most shrubs, they grew relatively slowly the first year, but unlike many shrubs took off the second year and filled in much more quickly than most other shrubs.

I don't prune either since I try to get only the dwarf versions of paniculatas but aaaahhhh... dreams of a hedge of Limelights or a hedge of Vanilla Strawberry's can drill a hole in my wallet. Ha! Wish that was doable here. You know, I tried a Little QF unsuccessfully. Hope your 'regular' QF continues to make it.

Breanna, sorry I didn't post sooner. The attached pictures include my row of lime lights that were planted 5 feet apart. The other picture is a comparison of a limelight that I planted last April and a limelight I planted this April. I am in zone 5.

Sorry I didn't respond sooner. I bought my regular QF as a 3-gallon in late 2009. Buying big is key to fast success, especially in areas with rough soil.

Steppskie - your LL look great!!! And wow have they grown. Thanks for posting photos!

Update- limelights leaves still don't look the best but I have flowers starting!!!

One thing you might want to consider is an organic mulch like shredded bark. I find that it helps keep shrubs happy by reducing swings in temperature and moisture and reducing weed competition over time.

How are your limelight doing this spring? I just planted 5 very large of them and cannot wait to see what they do.

Hi Roxana, I am in zone 3 so mine are just starting to get tiny buds. I will let you know how they progress when they start to really bud out!

Leaf buds or flower buds?

Leaf buds. Is it possible to have flower buds already in some places?!

The ones I purchased have some green everywhere already, but I have never dealt with hydrangeas before so I wanted to see how other's look like at any point really.

Wow!! Look how much they have grown in one season! They look great steppski!

Hahaha, can't wait to go out and post up an update of the limelights. Growth in year 3 is amazing. I'm laughing at the baby plants from the last two years.

Give Limelight a lot of room or prune yearly.

Here is my first Limelight at 3 years old.