Hydrangea assistance

I posted a "help please" in the hydrangea forum, and wanted to ask some of you PNWers if you might have had similar problems. I don't know how to insert the direct link, but it is titled "Bugs? Disease?" with a couple photos. Any local help would be appreciated, and maybe the hydrangea people can help out as well.

I'm having an usually tough time with plant ailments this spring - anyone else experiencing this?

http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/1088855/

Maybe this copied the link? Not sure...

It worked. I sent a message on it.

I posted on your thread, and yes, my plants are a little confused. First it's warm, then it's cold, then it's warm again. First dry, then rainy and cold, etc. Many of my peonies look like crap. My spirea has mildew. Most things are doing okay, though, amazingly enough.

Rick Lupp at Mt. Tahoma said he'd lost more plants last winter than in most previous winters. He thinks that the first frost was so early that the plants hadn't yet hardened off and that did it.

I've lost several things since January. They just rotted. I think, like Melissa, that it's been the huge temperature swings. They were lured into budding out and then the cold nailed them.

I will take the 'wait and see' attitude. I'm glad that I didn't somehow introduce some sort of pestilence into my gardens. It was just so odd for such an old healthy plant to suddenly take a nose dive. I also noticed similar damage to my astilbes which I will not stress about.

Hi there, I have lost more plants as well. I have received from wholesalers what looks like a nice plant then in a couple of weeks it is dead. The plants seem to push one little bit of growth then croak. I agree that this past winter was tougher than before. The winter before we had snow which was a good blanket.