My hydrangeas are blossoming! You suggested that could be the problem or possibly that I overfertilized. Nematodes, not pruning tools, spread this virus. However, more severe infestations can cause both wilting and root rot. I purchased a hydrangea tree about 3 months ago. Also, I still use the serenade treatment. Daconil can work on a number of different types of fungi, and its active ingredient is chlorothalonil. I also have two hydrangeas that I planted from pots a week ago. Are there any particular symptoms? I hope your… Read more ». Will see how they look after first week of neem oil treatment. Hi Helga! I can’t be sure, but it looks like it might be Japanese beetle damage. Actually, I don’t think it’s powdery mildew. Please help. Soft scales are small insects, often no more than 1/4 inch long and covered in a waxy or cottony coating … Would it be possible to post a picture? I potted it with the idea of bringing it into my home this winter (always bring my tree hibiscus in). I hope you can offer some advice concerning my hydrangeas. Zone 6b Pennsylvania. I’m so happy to hear it, and I’m glad that they are a pleasure for you now instead of a stressor. I have a few more questions and an answer to your question: 1. These are triggered by too much or too little water or inconsistent soil moisture. Be sure and sterilize your pruning tools between cuts with bleach or rubbing alcohol, so you don’t spread the infection. Hi Angela! Resource used: https://bit.ly/2LhKcZl Powdery mildew fungi also cover the flowers and new shoots of infected plants. If it’s any comfort, I’m struggling to identify the problem, too! Anthracnose can be fatal to the plant, so it’s important to treat the infection. Be sure and disinfect your pruning shears after you are done. There are no chemical treatments against it at the moment. Have browning leaves and flowers turn brown also, Hi Tina, Without a photo, I can only guess. Hi Kayle, Mealybugs are white, and they are dreadful insects that are really difficult to get rid of. You should also get rid of any fallen leaves. Most fungal diseases found on hydrangeas cause leaf spotting on the foliage rather than the stems, so I suspect that the white spots could be the eggs of a sap-sucking scale insect called Pulvinaria hydrangeae, or hydrangea scale. Also look… Read more ». Any ideas? Xanthomonas campestris. Prevention is the key in these cases. Every year I have problems with oak leaf hydrangeas. When we transplanted we started with 2 plants and one of them was divided into 3. Look for little webs on the leaves. I’m sorry it’s not better. If they are purple, that could be Cercospora leaf blight. They should be able to help you. Fertilizer burn is an excellent suggestion, but the symptoms from that usually develop on the edges of the leaves. Sorry~ I couldn’t figure out how to add the photos on my first comment, so they’re coming separately. That could be why you had problems with your other trees. If so, now is the time to treat them.… Read more », Hi Helga, I posted last month about my endless summer hydrangeas possibly having anthracnose. There are several things that could be going on. I think you should prune off the infected leaves to keep the disease from spreading. Hope that helps! That can cause leaves to turn purple. What remains doesn’t look like powdery mildew to me. In some cases, plant parasitic nematodes can transmit the viruses. Also, I have not fertilized the soil. We acquired 2 hydrangeas last year and planted in fairly large pots. I just noticed another person describing the same problem below. Treating them with mancozeb should help protect them from the spread of anthracnose. This is mysterious. For 35% HP, add 1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon to a gallon of water. This is the time of year… Read more ». 70% rubbing alcohol or 10% bleach. I live in Michigan, which has very cold winter. These spots become larger lesions and can kill the leaves. Thank you for your answer. 4) Do… Read more », Can you tell me what is killing my hydrangeas? Maybe Helga can help with this hydrangea problem we are having now for the second year. That sounds awful. You could start with neem oil, which is readily available. Is that correct? However, once again, you can spread the virus with your tools. Pulvinaria hydrangeae, or hydrangea scale, is a sap-sucking scale insect. What it should do is keep the infection from spreading to other leaves and flowers. Thank you so much Helga! Hi D’Lyn, Last year, I started noticing the brown spotting. Are they round circles of one color, or do they have rings around them? When you alternate with fungicides that act differently, the fungi are much less likely to develop resistance. Various fungal spots may develop on hydrangea leaves. (And disinfect your pruning shears or flower-cutting knives whenever you use them!). They can be very difficult to get rid of. That kind of leaf distortion is usually from a viral infection or an insect infestation. Oak Leaf-purple-reddish leaves dispersed throughout plant at a rate of about one per… Read more ». I cut the affected leaves/branches and now I can see new lesions in other sections of the plant. Thanks for the great website. Typically, these are white and waxy and, as you say, quite large. I would also prune off all of the infected leaves. There are two types of mildew. It’s not responding to any of the fungicides I try, I can’t seem to get them to upload, or delete the comments that uploaded without the pics. The fungus exists in the soil and is moved onto the plant by overhead watering or rain. Are there brown, sunken areas around the puncture wounds? Normally, it would have taken me weeks to learn what it was and how to treat. Some biofungicides (living organisms that kill fungi) have been used against… Read more », I have four endless summer hydrangeas planted in front of my shed. It’s difficult to diagnose without seeing it. Thank you. It can be treated by a variety of cultural moves as well as spraying a fungicide. How to remove black spots / fungus on your hydrangeas. We live in Indiana. Have you seen any of them on your plant? What do you recommend? One is the four-lined plant bug, and the other is the tarnished plant bug. These hydrangeas are heirloom, 7th generation plants, and they’re dying quickly. White spots can appear on the skin when protein and dead cells become trapped under the surface, or when there is a loss of pigmentation. There are several things you can do if it is anthracnose. I am aware of the “rust” blight that hydrangeas sometimes have but I thought that was specifically a leaf issue. Can you help? Thanks for asking. I will try that. Here is an article on how to deal with them: Doing Battle with Japanese Beetles: Tips for Banning Them From Your Garden Now about the flowers. If the severe trim doesn’t work, you will have to bin them. I can’t be positive from the pictures. There is one other possibility. The plants also grow better… Read more », Hi Helga! Or added ammonium sulfate to turn the flowers blue? Thank you so much! Hydrangea macrophylla is the most susceptible. We occasionally link to goods offered by vendors to help the reader find relevant products. Hi Victoria, I’m so sorry that your hydrangea is showing signs of disease. If needed, protectant fungicides can be applied prior to infection. The spray you provided contains neem oil, a natural fungicide, but it might not be strong enough to kill this kind of fungus. I thought the disease on your hydrangeas was powdery mildew because there are spores on the top of the leaves. I fertilized the plant a month or so ago with Miracle Gro and it gets watered weekly by my sprinklers. I live in Nor Cal in warm inland temps. Brown spots appear on the leaves and grow rapidly in size. Would it be possible to upload a picture of the spots? Could it be a virus? But it continued to get worse. I am spraying… Read more », Hi Ann, I’m sorry that your hydrangeas are afflicted with a disease. That is effective on many plants. We have heavy shade and heavy soil in our yard, and hot summers here in Columbia, SC. I would suggest you check with your local extension agent. This is how my leaves look, so glad to find your site. In addition to the usual white, powdery fungal growth on the leaf surfaces, yellow or purple leaf blotches might be present. Dear Julie, I can’t be sure, but one possibility is that the flowers later in the season are reacting to the hot midday to afternoon sun. Hi Victoria, Thanks for checking back for more information! The leaves are simple with margins that can be toothed or lobed. I thought hydrangeas loved partial shade so I kept my plants indoor but near a south-facing window. A. Please and thank you! Sterilize your pruning shears before cutting the plants, and plant clean stock in soilless media to avoid the viruses that are transmitted by nematodes in the soil. This virus causes the leaves to turn yellow and become distorted, and the growth of the plant will be stunted. Mrs J Cole, Basildon, Essex These are not white spores, but clusters of eggs, laid by the hydrangea scale. The leaves are pretty uniformly discolored. Not sure if it is due to the hot weather and causing the flower to burn. This rust only infects the smooth hydrangea, H. arborescens, and hemlock as its alternate host. Your poor plants! If you have a susceptible plant, you can protect it with copper hydroxide (Kocide). They were beautiful and green. Spotting generally begins at the base of the plant on older leaves and works its’ way up the plant. The disease rarely kills hydrangea plants, but it can cause leaves to drop and look unsightly. Definitely avoid overhead irrigation, because moisture spreads the fungus. Sunspots can also appear from extended tanning bed … Often it isn’t noticed until the spring. Elephant ears are often grown for their huge, robust foliage. Copper works, too, so that was a good choice. In acidic soil conditions (less than 6 on the pH scale) with available aluminum, you will tend to have blue and purple blooms. You should probably use… Read more ». My hydrangea has some illness that I cannot identify. Hi Julie, I’m sorry that your summer blooms look so ugly. Hi Ruth, Hello from a former Delawarean! Hydrangea > Leaves > Spots or blotches on leaves. Since then I moved the pots indoor to protect them from further damage. This won't take off the spots already there, but it will prevent any more from forming. If I remove the dead portion it just looks like the plant is dead, yet there are flowers blooming on other branches. Thanks, Hi Veronica, I’m so sorry that your beautiful hydrangeas are so unhappy. Thanks, Hi Roger, I am delighted that you like the website. What can be causing the blooms to dry up and turn brown and wither up? Our yard stays quite dry due to a combination of the heat, a… Read more », Dear Harriet, I’m so sorry that your plants are under siege! It may be too late to save your plants. Do you have any guidance? The first indication that your hydrangea is infected with Colletotrichum gloeosporioides will be brown spots on the leaves. Hi Christine, I’m sorry that your hydrangea has spots! Hi Helga, I can’t find recommendations for a particular fungicide for this pathogen. This leaf disease creates big snowball-shape clusters of flowers that have shades of white, red, pink, or blue. The center of each spot will later turn tan. Dear Ryan, I’m so sorry that your hydrangeas are showing such horrible symptoms. Does that fit with the symptoms? Hi Dan, Thank you so much for posting photos! However, they got frost damage last winter from a freezing night because I forgot to bring them inside. Now that she lives near Santa Barbara, California, she is delighted that many of these grow right outside! Thank you for your response and suggestions. As the watering is done at the roots with an irrigation system throughout the day. This year one has not come out “well,” its leaves are small and “scrunched up.” Oddly, we lost a Japanese maple (one of 6) that was almost 20 years old, and one of our ginkgo trees looks weird too. Thank you for this article, as it is hard to find information related to ALL of the diseases that affect hydrangeas. Powdery mildew is most likely to be a problem on hydrangeas when the days are warm and the nights cool. I really am delighted that your hydrangeas are coming back. A few things you can do immediately are to prune out the dead and damaged areas and get rid of them out of your garden. May 30, 2017 - Explore sue andrepont's board "Hydrangea Disease" on Pinterest. Hopefully, they can exterminate them! Fertilizing hydrangeas can cause the leaves to brown on hydrangeas. 2. New growth on … When the rainy time ceases, new growth shouldn’t have the spots. I can’t figure out what type of insect it could be, though. I bought two pots of endless summer hydrangeas last year from Lowe’s. Hydrangea Hydrangea Printable PDF Click on images to see larger view Hydrangea is a deciduous woody ornamental shrub or climbing plant that is known for its showy clusters of flowers that come in a large variety of colors including white, lime green, pink, purple, and blue. Symptoms consisted of irregular to circular lesions, dark brown in color with gray-white centers and delimited by dark brown borders. The flowers turned brown and the leaves have holes in them. 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