My poor little serrata, Blue Deckle was set aside to take some cuttings and it was forgotten. Found it and it was a crispy critter! So I did what I tell other to do and pulled it out of the pot and plunged it into a bucket of water. Not a green leaf left on the poor little plant so it went into the drink in a shady spot in the garden. Then I discovered another serrata, Beni, that was hiding behind some larger plants and it was just hanging on but in bad shape. Dug it up and plunked into a bucket of water. In two days, Blue Deckle started a really good recovery, three leaves plumped up and it got potted up and is looking good and will be just fine in the spring when it comes out of dormancy.

The Beni serrata is a favorite of mine - Beni means red and it has beautiful white blossoms with red at the edges. Between the pandemic and horrible smoke from the fires around us, this poor little baby got left in the bucket for almost three days. I went to rescue it from the bucket -- had to wear two masks to try to mitigate the effects of the thick smoke and my Beni was perfectly happy. No sour smell, and leaves plumping up even though they were really crispy three days ago. Got it planted in a container with fresh potting soil and today it looks a bit bare, but doing as fine as I hoped.

Moral of the story, hydrangeas are the survivors of the plant world. Give them a chance - a long soak with time for the water to be absorbed all the way to the top of the plant. I found it could take several days to reach the top of large or mature plant. I realize that some will say that long soaks will result in root rot, but I have not had that experience. Root rot is a soil born disease and not a problem in my garden. As an experiment I kept one hydrangea in a bucket for over a month, the water finally did get sour but I emptied the bucket, washed off the roots and put it back in the bucket with fresh water - planted it about a month later and it is doing beautifully in the garden.

By the way, I raise hydrangeas for our garden club plant sale - and for some friends - and usually have about 100 - 125 two year plants ready for the annual sale. We have about 60 different varieties growing in the garden and we don't fertilize or use any chemicals on the plants. We don't try to change colors of the blossoms. When asked how to change the color we encourage people to buy the color they want from a good grower - noting if the color is dependent on the soil. We also found that we can successfully move or transplant hydrangeas at any time of the year - here in the PNW. Your climate will dictate the best time of the year to move them. Just make sure they have plenty of water till they get acclimated to their new location.