did you notice.. we had a bad winter???

prune out any dead stuff ... ignore the trunk ... it obviously isnt dead ..

if you dont like what it looks like by fall.. get rid of it ...

feeding it will not help ...

my OLH is much more like a shrub ... i dont understand why yours is so tall .. unless it is starved for light [i see your hosta there] ... are you sure on that ID ... i cant tell from the pic ...

it will be assuming a new shape and form from here on out.. do not delude yourself.. into thinking.. it will be like it used to be ... change is not necessarily bad ...

do i see 3 stakes under it.. can you explain those????

ken

Ken,

As the branches got long over the years, I added some stakes, giving height to what is usually a sort of floppy shrub. Loosely tied to stakes gives shape to the shrub and allows good air flow through the plant. The garden there is bright light in morning (indirect), then dappled in early afternoon, then shaded later. There are no dead branches on the plant at this point. Every branch in the pic has floppy leaves at the end. Yes, it was a longer winter than normal, but this plant has seen one several years ago and nothing else in the bed has suffered. It's pretty sheltered from wind, too. I've not extra-fed the plant, just the annual 1C of HollyTone, same for the hostas and astilbes in that area. All the plants there have been in since 2003.

Here's the plant last year - April in 1st pic, June in 2nd.

Kiddo,
Sorry I can't help.
Maybe it is just struggling with all the rain we've had. I started to build an Ark.

It sure was beautiful before.

Your hydrangea is not getting enough sunlight, which results in the lanky long growth and is not as healthy due to the lack of light.......your plant probably has developed a root rot issue, which is common with oakleafs if the soil remains too damp.....

Ians - it's getting enough light. It is NOT lanky, but has been trained up on stakes. Without leaves the branches might look lanky to you, but they aren't.

I looked up armillaria root rot, but did not find any amber mushrooms around and an examination of the roots showed no sign of 'tendrils, shoestrings' or other fungal growth. There are no soft spots on the roots and as for their color - I don't know paleness is normal or not.

Help me, hydrangea lovers. I don't want to lose this beauty. THanks.

This post was edited by kiddo_1 on Fri, May 30, 14 at 8:59

Could the bark have been eaten away over the winter by voles or rabbits?