If you happen to have a patio or a balcony at home, keeping shrubs such as hydrangeas in pots is very ideal because these potted plants provide these areas with a spectacle. Especially when they are in full bloom, hydrangeas would really brighten these places. However, with benefits come drawbacks. Sometimes, you may be faced with problems with hydrangeas in pots.
As a plant owner, you have to be aware of these problems before they actually appear in your plants. In this article, we will be discussing some of these common problems and what you should do to avoid them.
What are some problems with hydrangeas in pots?
Leaves of hydrangea turning yellow
If the leaves of your hydrangea would start to turn yellow even during its supposed growing season, then the roots of the plant might be the root cause (see what we did there?). This would most likely occur before your hydrangea has established a strong root system. You might want to check the frequency of your watering, too. This is because if you water too much or too little, the plant’s leaves could really start to turn yellow. If the root is kept too wet or too dry, it would get damaged, making the leaves wilt and eventually, die.
To avoid getting the root to rot, make sure that the pot has enough drainage in its base. You also need to check the soil or the potting mix that you would put in to ensure that it is not composed of just the clay type.
Spots on the leaves of hydrangea
The spots that you would find on your hydrangea leaves may have been caused by bacteria or fungus. While they are non-threatening since they do not really affect the ability of the plant to bloom, these spots may not make your hydrangeas look attractive at all. One of the fungi that causes these spots – the Cercospora hydrangea fungi – will have gray or tan centers and taper off with either purple or brown colors. As much as possible, don’t let these fungi dominate the leaves because when your whole plant gets infected, it would most likely die,
To treat these spots, you can use fungicides. However, many gardeners do not think that this is would not be totally beneficial. Instead, there are actually tips and tricks that you could do in order to control these spots. You can keep your plant from leaf debris and cut the old stems so that air can circulate better in the plants.
Holes on the leaves of the hydrangea
When looking through your hydrangea, you may spot small holes its leaves. These holes underneath the foliage may have been caused by the larvae of small fruit worms that feed off of the leaves. We suggest that you would spray the leaves immediately, coating the back portion of the leaves to remove any of these larvae.
Edges of the leaves turn brown
Many gardeners have a tendency to apply a good amount of fertilizers to their newly potted hydrangeas. But this may have severe repercussions on your plants. If you would observe that the edges of the leaves begin to turn or yellow just a few days after fertilizing the plant, then there is a high chance that the roots might have been burned. One of the major culprits of this is aluminum sulfate. This is a substance that you can add to the soil when you want to change the color of the hydrangea blooms. But if you give your plant too much of it, then you expect root damage which, in turn, would turn the edges of the leaves to brown.
Should your hydrangea’s leaves begin turning brown, you can solve it by thoroughly flushing its soil with water. This should remove the majority of the salts which were present in the fertilizing. You can conduct a soil test to check the presence of remaining salts in your soil. Afterwhich, try not to water it until the surface soil is dry. After treating the root damage, we suggest avoiding fertilizing your plant again until it looks healthy.
Flowers turn brown
One of the major problems with hydrangeas in pots is that their flowers tend to quickly turn brown. This problem may be due to your plant drying out. Moreover, if your plant is directly hit by the sun’s heat, it will quickly turn brown. Hence, we suggest watering your hydrangeas regularly when the weather is warm. To keep the soil moist, we suggest placing a layer of mulch around the plants. In certain instances, a soaker hose that you would wind around the plants could help in hydrating these shrubs. Moreover, we suggest relocating these hydrangeas to a place where they are not directly hit by the sun but still receive sufficient sunlight.
Hydrangea is drooping
Your hydrangeas droop for a reason, and reason could be beyond any illness. When your potted hydrangeas are drooping, this is seemingly their response to their dislike of the environment where they are in. If you place them in an area that is too much dry or hot, your hydrangeas would droop and wilt due to the lack of moisture. Placing more fertilizer than what is required could also contribute to droopy plants.
To solve this problem, you can begin by checking the moisture level of your shrubs with your finger. Insert your finger into the soil. If it feels dry, then water it deeply. Check the level of moisture every once in a while until the hydrangea perks up. As mentioned before, perform a soil test before placing a fertilizer to avoid drooping hydrangeas due to over-fertilization. You can also try to thin the inside of your plant in order to promote growth and stop the rest of your plan from drooping even more.
Closing thoughts
Hydrangeas are generally quite sensitive. So to avoid these problems with hydrangeas in pots, you should be aware of the things you put into them. You should also take a particular focus on their environment. If you are able to take care of your hydrangeas the way you know how, then, you would be seeing bright blooms that would be spectacular to look at.