I have had several calls the last couple of days with concerns like “my hydrangea is drooping” or the leaves aren’t looking very good and are turning brown”. These are concerns on newly planted hydrangeas. These plants are heavy water users. Here in the nursery, we are watering our container ones at least twice a day, and sometimes on the hot days – they’re getting watered three times a day. Give your hydrangeas plenty of water – perhaps even twice a day. They definitely show you that they are thirsty – they will wilt before your eyes!
Be careful not to leave a hose trickle water your plants. You have no way of knowing if they are getting one gallon of water or twenty gallons. Water in a way that you know how much water you are giving any plant. With newly planted plants – all of the moisture that plant has is in the root ball. Whether it was a small one gallon perennial, or a 15 gallon tree – once the moisture has been used up in that root ball, it is lacking moisture and is definitely under stress. You need to be sure you get enough water on the plant to soak down into the entire root system. A quarter inch of rain will only go down perhaps an inch or so into the soil surface. If your plant has mulch on it, it is likely that none of the rain water from that 1/4 inch rain will even get to any of the roots, let alone all the way to the bottom of the root ball.
For more specifics on watering, please check out our instructions page and see our watering instructions.
