Looks like an iron deficiency.

Interesting. I should have said I haven't tested my soil since 2016 and I'm not even sure when I did test it in 2016, how much of it might have come from this bed, but in 2016 according to my soil test, normal range for iron is 2.7-9.4 and my results were 6.3. Right in the middle of normal. Actually I was not missing anything except nitrogen. I had an over abundance of everything Everything was above the normal range. I do mulch with maple leaves and grass clippings all the time.

I looked up iron deficiency leaf photos and it appears that while they are yellow, the veins in the leave remain green. I wonder if that is a feature of iron deficiency? Here is the soil test done in 2016. I'm sure it's time for me to take another soil test.

Okay, well....normally I see a yellow leaf all the way yellow, so it threw me off a little to see the green spots on them. I'm always wondering if I am getting the watering right. This year has been so odd. I was watering from rainbarrels in a way that I thought was just right. And everything looked fine, then started noticing the yellowing in the interior and at the bottom. Then we got a LOT of rain. 5 inches one weekend, 5 inches the next weekend. I've gotten about 14 inches of rain since June 1st. Very unusual for us. I'm normally dragging the sprinkler everywhere in July and August. And I think I've seen more yellow leaves since then, but...on the whole the garden looks like it appreciates the rain. Tomato plants had a few branches that were starting to look unhealthy and I took those off and so far they still look pretty good, just slowing down the fruit ripening and flower production. These Hydrangea are in full sun in clay/loam soil that is not that heavy.

Here's a full shot of the shrub....

wow.. thats one happy.. healthy ... well grown plant ... who cares if it has a couple yellow leaves... pick them off and move along ...

maybe some kid kicked a ball into it ...

ken

I thought it was looking pretty good this year too. I have two in the same bed, planted one year apart and the other one is smaller and looks good too but also has yellow leaves, but less. I am happy to just remove the yellow leaves and enjoy the shrub, I just don't know enough about plant problems to assume it's nothing. Especially since I had the same thing happen last year. I just wanted to make sure it wasn't some deficiency or disease I am unfamiliar with or that I've got the watering wrong.

Thank you.

IME panicled hydrangeas like it quite a bit drier than any other hydrangeas or many shrubs for that matter. mine are well established and I don’t water them at all.

Babs, I remember you saying so before. I'm always amazed when I hear that someone is able to get away without watering. Even in the seasons when we've had a lot of drought? And do you get any negative responses to that? You don't get any yellowing leaves from drought at all? Stressed plants?

Do you have any mixed beds with perennials, annuals and shrubs? Seems like plants have different watering needs and having them in the same bed, it's not always easy to meet their individual water needs, you sort of have to give the whole bed the same treatment if you use a sprinkler at all. I try to use rainbarrel's with a watering can, but that's not always possilbe, I do end up having to turn the sprinkler on.

I believe you are on a well and have a large property, so I'm thinking that it's a necessity not to water your plants. Or do you have some plants that you do water and do you have all those plants in the same bed or pots near the house? What about mulching? Do you mulch heavily to keep things from getting too dry?

I'm just trying to figure out what the difference is between your garden and mine.

What is this 'watering' of which you speak?

A long time ago, maybe 15 years ago, our fancy local nursery had a garage sale. IIRC, there was scratch and dent merchandise, used equipment they no longer wanted, and general assorted garage sale stuff. I picked up a very fancy used Gardenia sprinkler. It is truly cool. You can adjust it to do practically anything a sprinkler should do. I've used it twice. Mostly because it is really cool. It has an 'off' switch. Have I said it is really cool?

To my mind, this is one of the bigger issues in modern gardening. People who live places where most plants can thrive on normal rainfall, and survive serious droughts, have gotten the idea that plants need watering. So they water, and the plants develop small, shallow root systems in response. When that happens, the plants do suffer without the watering because they don't have the root system development necessary to survive on their own. This becomes a major issue because most northeastern water systems are old enough to be sized for a time when outdoor water use was washing cars and filling kiddie pools. It wasn't watering the great outdoors three times a week. So the watering restrictions go on earlier and earlier. People complain their plants are going to die, and some even do. However, when people are talking about losing several year old junipers to drought in this area, something is seriously wrong.

PM2, I am on fine sand with little natural organic content because I am on what was a glacial lake bottom. So I added organic material and mulch and then planted through it. In 12-15 years I have remulched 2 or 3 times. After the first 2 or rarely 3 years following planting I don’t water, even last summer when we went through something like 10 weeks with something like 1/4” of rain and a lot of temperatures over 90F. The plants show no sign of stress with the exception of a very few moisture-loving perennials. The exception is the veggie garden that gets watered after 3-4 weeks without appreciable rain. All my beds are a mix of shrubs, perennials, and self-seeding annuals.

Well, I understand the concept and certainly Babs, we are starting off at opposite ends of the scale, no sand here, but clay. Which actually should make me less in need of watering I guess. And the way you started the gardens, like the lasagna method and planting right into the organic matter and mulch. I am sure that helped.

And if you watered for the first 2 years let's say, then the next year you just went cold turkey and your plants didn't have an adjustment period?

I also consider the fact I have two Norway Maples with aggressive water seeking roots just outside the corners of my small 1/4 acre lot, and probably a dozen more trees within 5ft of my lot line, and wonder if that adds to why my property is so dry.

But I will keep that in mind, next year to see how long I can go without watering and how my plants fare. I don't think I'll have to water for the rest of this season. [g]

MadGallica - You grow roses too, and still don't water. Quite interesting. I'm sure, in the past, peope never watered their yards to the degree they do now. But then again, people in my immediate family didn't really garden either. A lot of my neighbors don't know what a sprinkler looks like, but they have grass from lot line to lot line.

I live on a pile of sand here in southern MN and have to water paniculatas during dry spells and even still get some yellow interior leaves.

One of the points of grass is you don't have to water it.