Hydrangea in a pot

I received a beautiful blue hydrangea as a gift. I have put in near a sunny window and have been watering it everyday. I have it about a month now, and the blooms have turned purple. I want to plant it outside, but am sure how to proceed. Should I wait til it is a little warmer?

You could probably start adjusting it gradually to outdoor temperatures and light intensity--you can't just dump it outdoors after it's been inside, but start leaving it out in a shady area for a little while and gradually increase the time it's out there until it's outside all the time. Then you can plant it...but if you're not past your last frost date yet you'll need to make sure it's brought in for the night (if it's still in a pot) or covered up (if it's in the ground)

Do you know what zone you're in? This is probably one of the hydrangeas that blooms on old wood, so if you're in zone 5-6 you will want to protect it over the winter or else your flower buds will tend to freeze off and you won't get any flowers the following year. Many people build a wire cage around them and fill it up with leaves for the winter.

I'm not sure which zone. There are other hydrangeas in the yard that were not covered and are coming up now. So.. I should leave it outside during the day and bring it in at night? How long do you think it might need to get acclimated?

You can get your zone here...
http://www.farmersalmanac.com/weather/a/average_frost_dates

how to "harden off" a plant

Begin 7 - 10 days before your transplant date.

Place plants in a sheltered, shady spot outdoors. Under a tree or even on your back porch is fine. Leave them for 3-4 hours and gradually increase the time spent outside by 1-2 hours per day.

Bring plants back indoors each night.

After 2-3 days, move the plants from their shady spot into morning sun, return them to the shade in the afternoon.

After 7 days, the plants should be able to handle sun all day and stay out at night, if temperatures stay around 50 degrees F. Keep an eye out that the soil doesn't dry and bake the plants, if the weather is warm.

After 7 -10 days your plants are ready to transplant. Try to do so on a cloudy day and be sure to water well after planting.

I put it in the ground today... I'll let you know if it survives!

The hydrangea has been in the ground about a month and a half now. I'm kind of worried about it though. Will it take a year or two to tell if it will make it?

I'm not sure if there are some issues with it that aren't shown in the picture, but to me it looks like the leaves are fine and healthy looking and it's just the flowers that look a little sad--that's perfectly normal for something that's been planted recently. Plants need to focus on getting their roots established, so frequently they'll stop blooming or the blooms will get a bit sad looking because the plant doesn't have energy for them while it works on its roots.

A friend actually suggested I cut the flowers off to allow the plant to focus on the roots.. I'm not sure. Also... the flowers were originally blue, then purple, then brown, then this color... weird?

Hydrangea blooms will often change colors somewhat as they age (usually ending up at brown eventually), and if the plant is focusing on roots not flowers they could have aged faster than normal. Part of the change that you're seeing may also be due to your soil--if it was blue in the pot it means it had acidic soil, and if your soil is alkaline your blooms in future years will be pink (unless you take steps to change your soil pH) so it could be that higher pH soil was contributing from them going from blue to purple to pink. As far as removing the flowers--you can cut the flowers off if you don't like how they're looking, but now that it's already been in the ground for 6 wks or so the plant has already decided where to focus its energy so I'm not sure if it would help it any to take the blooms off now or not.