Remove the wilted hydrangeas from your arrangement and re-cut the stems on a 45-degree angle. Make a vertical slit in the incision and hold the stem upright in the boiling water for about 60 seconds. Place the hydrangeas back in your floral arrangement and they should revive themselves in an hour or so.
Removing spent flowers will ensure your hydrangeas produce healthier, more bountiful blooms later on.
Trim an inch off the ends of the stems and submerge wilted flowers in a bucket, bowl or sink filled with cool water. If you're trying to revive multiple stems at once, weigh down the stems in the water with a lightweight plate so they stay completely submerged.
"Bigleaf hydrangeas, such as Endless Summer, should be deadheaded when the first set of flowers sprouts from last year's growth in the spring, as it eliminates the faded flowers before the next flush appears," she explains.
Are the blooms on your hydrangea shrubs fading or turning brown? No need to worry – this is simply a sign that it's time to remove the flowers, a process called deadheading. When you deadhead hydrangeas, you aren't harming the plants at all.
Too much exposure to full sun for long hours and lack of moisture can cause your hydrangea stems to weaken and touch the ground. Drooping and wilting is your hydrangea plant's way of saying that it is not doing too well and needs your attention!
Insufficient water is the most common cause for the leaves, flowers, and stems of hydrangeas to wilt. The name Hydrangea, stems from the Greek word “hydros” which means water. When its fibrous roots don't find enough water to take up, the hydrangea loses its turgidity.
It's when they consume most of their water, so they are most prone to wilting at night when they're not getting the water they're used to. You'll need to help your hydrangea blooms get the excess water that they need in a different way because they usually can't consume enough water from their stems alone.
The reason for hydrangeas wilting and dying is because there is not enough moisture around the roots due to lack of watering or rainfall, the soil drains too quickly, too much sun or excessive wind saps moisture from the leaves. Hydrangea flowers can droop due to excess fertilizer.
Here's what to look for: Leaf discoloration: hydrangea laves typically become yellow and brown when overwatered. However, the discoloration can also be a sign of underwatering. Usually, when the plant is overwatered, the browning occurs on the edges of the leaves.
If you don't prune hydrangeas then they can eventually resemble a tangled mass of woody stems, and the flowers will become smaller and less showy.
Hydrangeas are amazingly resilient, she says. If they wilt in the heat of a summer afternoon, they will likely perk up by the next morning. But don't let them suffer too often or the cell structure will collapse and the leaves may not come back until fall rain or even next spring.
Symptoms of overwatered hydrangeas may include brown and wilted leaves, yellow leaves that will drop from the plant, and stunted growth. Signs of root rot may present themselves as well. This could appear that half of your plant is dead, and you may see white fungus near the crown of the hydrangea.
Wait to prune your bigleaf hydrangeas until new growth appears in the spring. Make pruning cuts one quarter inch above the first set of live buds. Hint: stems with live buds will be green on the inside, while dead stems will be brown. Entirely dead stems should be cut flush to the base.
Shallow or inconsistent watering.
If a hydrangea is being watered every other day for twenty or thirty minutes (sadly, standard automatic irrigation settings) the plant is likely to wilt in hot weather. Once the flowers wilt a few times they will turn brown.
If your hydrangea blooms are turning brown too soon and quickly petering out, they likely need more water. Ditto if your flowers wilt during the day and don't bounce back at night. To confirm, look for brown spots on leaf edges. To fix, deeply water hydrangeas once a week.
Too much sun exposure can cause your hydrangea shrubs to burn on its leaves and blooms. Also, be sure to put your fingers in the soil to see if it needs watering. We do recommend a soak versus light watering each day, but you should be sure that the soil is always moist – not wet – by sticking your fingers in the dirt.
To get the most benefit from deadheading, it's best to remove spent flowers as soon as they look scruffy, whatever the time of year. This could mean deadheading daily for some plants, such as summer bedding, and once a week or every other week for others, such as border perennials.
Add Sugar or Plant Food to the Water
One teaspoon of sugar or plant food to a quart of water should be enough to perk up your flowers and get them looking lively again. If this hasn't helped, add another teaspoon of sugar (dissolved in warm water, first) after two or three hours.