These Hydrangea plants are about 5 yrs old. They have always had big dark blue blooms. This year, they started out the same, but over the last few weeks some have bloomed pale blue with purple specs. Some are hardly even a bloom. I have posted pictures of them. Any thoughts to what they might need? I watered them with miracid about a week ago.
Thanks
Angie
Hydrangeas produce different colors of flowers based on the pH of the soil. I would do more to keep the pH in the acidic range. Lots of compost, mulch and keep on using the acid reacting fertilizers.
I have lots of Hydrangeas and last year they had small blooms and the blooms stayed mostly green. They are usually blue, not real dark but a very pretty blue. I have no idea why, I did nothing I am aware of differently. People said wait till this year and they will probably be back to normal. So this year they are back pretty much to normal. Not all the blooms are the same color blue, and I even have on small bush with pink flowers. Last year was the first year I ever had a pink bloom on one of my plants.
Angie the EXACT thing has happened with mine. I noticed it last week. First time. I think that shrub has been there 10 years -- blooms great and pretty deep blue reliably. I will take a photo tomorrow. I can't say the color has been weak... I will look at that tomorrow....but that tiny bloom in your photo looks like what I have going here. It scared me because it reminded me of the threads in the coneflower discussion group where the plants get infected via leaf hoppers and it stunts the flower. Highly contagious and no fix other than destruction. I hope it is not that because I really like the one hydrangea bush I have. It is right up against the house and the deer don't touch it. The mosquitos so bad because of the rain that I haven't been out back and truthfully have not looked at the color of the blooms but I can see the stunted bloom from the window. Maybe it's all the rain sending more effort to the leaves and shrub growth instead of to the bloom.
I have had aster yellows on some purple coneflowers, but until you mentioned it here, I never even thought about it infecting my Hydrangeas. I can tell when it is on my coneflowers by the bushy green growth that develops in the center of the flower and the petals are very short and distorted. Hydrangeas are on the list of plants affected by Aster Yellows.
http://ipm.illinois.edu/diseases/rpds/903.pdf
Oh no! That is the name now that you have said it SeedF. I hope not. Here is the photo and I see that the blooms are not their usual deep blue.
I will whack this right to the ground and see what comes next year. I routinely cut it back each year anyway. If the asters yellow..... I know that won't help. I am still hoping it is this horrible endless rain we have had.
A few weeks ago there were many more blooms. Typically the color is a true medium to deep blue. (acidic soil here this NC wooded site)
There has been colour changes with Hydrangea's all over the globe, we have had the same here in UK, it's been put down to too much rain, washing nutrients out of the soil.while others say the changing climate is altering the other plants too. Because of the really wet summers last couple of years, my Rhododendrons have flowered their hearts out with huge flower heads and the colours have been quite bright on some pink ones, BUT on the other hand, ALL my veg have been a waste of time and most have grown a little then went to seed, so maybe over your way there has been something a do with the climate rather than something wrong with the plants.
BUT I STILL WONDER !!!!!
Good luck, WeeNel.
missingrosie, I wouldn't get so drastic so fast. I think I would have to see more evidence of the disease, I would check with the county agent. See if aster yellows often affects Hydrangeas in your area, I doubt seriously if that is the problem. I would just wait and see what else develops before I would chop down my plants. May just be a one year thing like mine was.
Cant agree more with Seeafork, the plants are perfectly healthy apart from the flower colour and that's easy remedied by altering the soil they grow in and there are plenty products on the market to help with this IF required,
My own remedy is to give a mulch of compost with peat added and maybe some acidic plant feed half doze arounf each plant, wait and see whet the flowers are like next summer, that's what gardening is about, waiting to see the results good or bad but to be honest nice big flowers maybe a bit paler in colour is not a disaster to me and I've been garden for more years than I care to remember so believe me I've seen disasters ha, ha, ha.
Best of luck. WeeNel.
The shrub had its treat of wonderful compost this year like every year. The soil is so acid here, if I were a plant, I would be blue. But as I said earlier I think the only influence this year in the extreme was rain. This may be the same for Asears (one state over) too. The entire east coast has been nailed. SeedF would not pull out - I whack back every year by 2/3 give or take. I will do that again in autumn and observe next year. Calling county agent a good idea.
Two thirds later in the year, Ok. You have been doing that so you know it works for you, I thought you were saying right now I am going out and whack it right down to the ground. I have never tried that, but that might work, I would be afraid to do it though. I always wait until spring when new growth is coming on then it is easy for me to tell new growth from old growth. I guess it all depends on which type of plants you have.
New or old growth with the hydrangea it all goes. This spot is very limited in space and for whatever reason the deer don't come that close to the shrub. The buggers look in my windows with my plants in their mouths -- so not sure it is house proximity. Maybe it is 4 foot high metal rooster! Regardless - that area covered with and intended for fragrant edgeworthia and I never thought the hydrangea would make it past the deer - it was just a "let me try this here" sort of thing. It is too big for the spot and it grows like on steroids - so it gets a yearly whack. May have skipped a year but don't think so. So far so good. Maybe the edgeworthia keeep the deer from noticing the hydrangea.
Hydrangeas flower color depends totaly on its soil, if u want it to remain blue just add a nice mulch of pine leaves this adds to the acidid content of your soil, they like water and not very hot summers so remember that the more water they get the quicker the nutrients get washed out the soil, a pine mulch will really help in keeping the soil at the required level you need. Beautifull plants hey! So don't stress to much about climatic change and all that hehe (for your plants) its normal for them to change color as the soil they grow in change :-)
Guiana
The color was secondary to the concerns for the small and abnormal appearing blooms. But perhaps the rain did wash out nutrients impacting color.
Thanks for all the thoughts. I totally cleaned out the borders. I put down a fresh layer of dirt and compost mix and covered it with pine bark mulch. Can't wait to see what happens!!!!
Angie
Too lazy to read, has anyone mentioned that Hydrangeas need Aluminum to make the color blue? Maybe you're just missing Aluminum in the soil.
(When the pH of the soil is too alkaline the plant can't take in the Aluminum it needs to make the blue pigment and therefore the blooms develop pink. It's not as much about pH as everyone thinks, it's about Aluminum uptake)
