I bought my hydrangeas about a month ago and since then the weather has gotten significantly warmer and more humid. I keep them outside and they would wilt easily unless I watered them 2-3 times a day. They seemed to be thriving until recently they wilted and turned green. The stems turned brown near the soil and the the green parts have black spots on them.
Stems look fine. Blooms will fade to brown after it hits peak color. You can cut the dried blooms off any time you feel like it. It will bloom again next year if treated to good conditions (water, light, fertilizer). It could even bloom once more if it is the newer reblooming type.
Hydrangeas do not perform well inside the home on a long term basis. It is not humid enough so it may be ok to store them inside during winter but not forever.
Like hcmcdole dais, the blooms typically display shades of blue, purple, pink or they are white. That lasts for a while and then they begin a progression of color changes that adds some green or pink spots and eventually ends with brown blooms. When planted outside, these blooms can add winter interest but inside the home, you may want to prune the string that connects the bloom to the stem.
An invisible flower bud will soon develop at the end of the stems and these buds will open in Spring 2019. If this were to be a reblooming type of hydrangea, it may produce new blooms in the summer. But this look like a variety purchased at a florist or grocery store.
Once temperatures get higher than 85, hydrangeas may show wilting of leaves/blooms. This happens when the shrub looses moisture thru the leaves faster than it can absorb moisture thru the roots. If the soil is kept as evenly moist as you can, hydrangeas will get used to this in 1-3 years and the wilting episodes will be few and only when it is really hot. A typical wilting episode will self correct by the next morning if the soil is moist.
Some hydrangeas develop dots in the stems. Others do not. It is just aesthetic. Sometimes they are black, brown, red. Sometimes the whole stem is that color; think of Hydrangea Nigra and of Lady In Red.
Luis
This message was edited May 23, 2018 6:34 PM
