Help to save my Hydrangea

Hi


I have a bed full of Hydrangea but they looking very sad. Should i replace them or how do I help them come back next year to bloom once more

I've posted a couple more of previous years when they looked fantastic

 

They may well be too densely planted - ie not enough room to get to full potential, and that will depend on the varieties you have. It looks like there's quite a lot in the site, therefore more competition.
That may also mean it's too dry for them, especially if they're newly established, and the soil may also be too poor for them to thrive well. If the shed [?] also prevents rain getting in, that affects the overall moisture content of the soil, which can be a problem for newly planted shrubs. It takes them a year or so to establish properly, and get roots down well.
However, they do look tatty at this time of year when they lose their foliage. It seems early for them to be at that stage though.
Do you mulch or add any organic material to the area? What is the soil like?

 

These plants have been here for at least 5 years from the previous owners. I have tried to add a bit of compose but thats about it. this year, the ends of them were black and didn't really flower as well as previous years. I was hoping they would bounce back but as you can see they do look tatty. should I cut them back and wait for next year?

Sorry, i'm really new to gardening so not familiar with soil test
ing

 

As @fairygirl says you have too many plants for that space. I think a large part of the problem is the dry weather this summer and as above the shed will shelter from some of the rain.
I think I would rehome two or three of them to elsewhere in the garden and maybe move the remaining plants further from the shed. Then wait until next spring when they should reshoot.

 

I would think that the very dry summer we've just had could be the problem @New2Gardening. Our hydrangeas have looked a bit pathetic at times.

 

I agree with @fairygirl - they've not had enough water during summer.
A thick mulch will help a lot in that respect

 

Apologies @New2Gardening - I slightly misunderstood your original post. I thought they'd only been in a year or so.
Having said that, if they've been there a while with no attention, the soil is probably very depleted in nutrients and that extra organic matter you can add as a mulch will really help. Anything will do - compost, rotted manure [you can buy that bagged in GCs etc] or even just topsoil, which you can also buy. If you have annuals in pots, you can use the compost from those too.
That's always better than artificial feed [liquid products or granules] for shrubs. You can do that on a regular basis throughout the year to beef up the soil for them. If you have your own compost bin, that's good too, and leaf mould is one of the best additions, but that takes a while to make.

Just poke your hand into the soil in a few spots to see what it's like just now, and if it's generally dry where you are, add the mulch after a good watering. If it's damp to a decent depth, you can add the compost etc right away. That was all I meant when I asked what the soil was like - ie wet/dry, heavy/light. I didn't mean you had to check soil pH or anything

 

If the black tips were there since the spring, itcould be frost damage. If it is then that would also account for the lack of flowers because the buds gets destroyed by the frost.
The plants do normally bounce back and green up, sometimes from the base with dead stems above.

 

Basically I agree with what others have said .

Personally I would thin them out, that is dig up some to give good airflow around the remaining plants.
As @NigelJ says, you could replant them in other areas of the garden, bearing in mind that generally speaking hydrangeas don't like full sun.

I see you live in Chesterfield which I know can get pretty chilly over winter. It can be very tempting to prune hydrangeas when you see fresh green leaves appearing, but in view of your location I would leave it until late Spring. The black leaves are more than likely a sign of frost damage as @Thevictorian says.

 

Yes - pruning of that type [mophead or lacecap] should be done in very late winter/spring, depending on location and conditions. It's always better to be prudent and wait, rather then being too eager to trim off old flowerheads or stems, and when in doubt, take less rather than more.
Paniculatas are different for pruning - ie take back much harder in late winter/early spring because they flower on new wood, and oak leaf don't really need pruned at all. They're the ones which are fine with sun too.
The fact that they look so poor for the time of year suggests longer term problems than just a bit of frost damage or general weather though.