It looks to me like some type of chemical damage. The new growth looks severely stunted.

I have the exactly same problem with my little lime ! I cut all the shoots off around May and the new shoots started out fine, and I have 5 flower buds right now but the rest started to turn like this again. It started to happen before I spray any fungicide so I don't think it's chemical damage. I emailed Kristin at Hydrangea Plus and she said she had never experienced this either. Maybe people at PW have the answer?

oaktree1228, any problems with nearby plants? where are you located? if you know, have you used insecticides near this shrub? That and mites would be the easiest reasons; the cause of witches broom in hydrangeas is difficult/costly to research.

jchad214, can you post pictures of your LL? Have you checked for mites? would be nice to be able to compare the two pictures.

Well, fungicides will not do anything to pests and will not do anything to a fungus for which they were not designed for. Just viewing the damage, it seems to affect new growth and very small growth at that. Mites would do that. I cannot comment as to why the other shrubs have not been affected unless the mite infestation started with one shrub for some reason and has not spread or not spread much to the others. If you decide to treat for that, Safer Insecticidal soap is something that you could use. Nice looking plants, jchad214!

Oaktree1228's damage is quite different. The new growth and some middle foliage has been affected, leaving the oldest bottom leaves. Did this plant have any winter issues that could be becoming obvious now?

Rare for mites to do that much damage without someone noticing the problem. I would expect their tell tale webbing to be visible in such a large infestation but I could not notice any on the picture (granted the webbing is quite thin and small anyways but...).

Chemical damage, my first impression too, could hurt new growth like that but it is strange that it is the only affected/mentioned shrub (or are there others, oaktree1228? I assumed there were none because you did not say). That much damage to one plant and zip to other nearby plants??? Hmmm. I would have expected other plants to also be affected when the chemicals drifted.

Witches broom is a possibility too but I decided that, if oaktree1228 can rule out chemical damage, send samples in tightly sealed transparent plastic bags to an Agriculture Extension Service for proper analysis. I would also temporarily separate any affected plants. By the way, oaktree1228, where are you located???

I went and looked at my LL this morning and yeah, the leaves are suffering from my heat but found no signs of mites when I placed a white paper on the floor and shook the plant. No problems on recent new growth. Now, on the opposite corner of the house, I know I have mites there as I have noticed the webbing. I released some beneficial insects about two weeks ago for that.

Luis

PS - Oaktree1228, can you also describe how the leaf damage progressed to this state? It may give someone ideas. Also, were any special chemicals used to amend the soil? Meaning high or low levels of certain minerals?

I did not see sign of mites and I have given them fungicide Bayer 3-in-1 Insect, Disease&Mite Control 3 times after I cut the first flush of distorted new shoots in May. However, most of the new growth since then still show the same sign. I am happy to get 6 blooms out of it though. The plant has grown about 3 times wider and twice taller than when I got it last Fall. I plan on giving it a hard prune to keep its size smaller and hopefully will get rid of the distorted growth next year.

oaktree,

I've seen that sort of spotty damage -- some plants affected, others not -- in a retail garden center. The cause: Spot spraying with herbicide.

As commonly used as things like Round-up are nowadays, are you sure the plants in question did not get some drift from some Round-up used in your yard or even in the neighbor's yard?

Kate