Good morning, Missmary. New growth can be affected by a frost so it is possibe that a frost caused the leaves to turn blackish. This warm winter has affected hydrangeas in many places similarly, by making them leaf out too early and then surprise them with freezing temperatures. The frost should not hurt the roots so the plant is in no danger. Keep the shrub well mulched (3-4 inches), the soil evenly most and, if you use winter protection, remove it 1-2 weeks after your average date of late frost in Spring (local nurseries can tell you this date if you do not know). Do not fertilize stressed out plants now; maybe in early June.

You got a freeze. ES gets whacked harder than non remontant hydrangeas. As far as the buds go, you will have to wait a month or so to see if they were completely killed off or if there is any new growth from them. As for the base growth it may continue or be aborted and restarted. At any rate, it looks like a freeze sets the growth back by about a month in total. This I would imagine contributes largely to there being a foot or two height difference between hydrangeas between around the mason-Dixon line.

Missmary, your ES definitely got hit with a frost. We had two nights at 32 degress and mine got the same look to it. My mom told me to just leave it alone because the roots were alright. Just means we will be waiting even longer on blooms :(

My hydrangeas are probably 25 or 30 yrs. old planted by original owner. We got hit a few weeks ago by a heavy freeze..The inside leaves held up but the outer leaves look like they were in a fire, burnt and dry/crinkle. I'm going to leave them and see what happens. Hoping with some rain which we need badly, new leaves will come out. One of my rose bushes was effected slightly but nothing like the hydrangea.

I have this problem too. I also noticed more dead branches (die back) than usual. One of my endless summers is looking raggedy, it's leafing out so I trimmed off the dead branches. Could this be because of the cold snap?

My leafs have holes and sone are brown so I coverd them so they csn have some shade is that ok and whats causing this just bought them a week ago

Some of my limelite hydrangeas seem to be struggeling to leaf-out this spring. As I pruned back by maybe 1/4 to live wood, I did notice good green stalks and all plants are in full sun.

The plants I have are irrigated and have received a small amount of 10-10-10 slow release fertalizer at the beginning of spring.

What could be the problem?

hippostorage, see the questions a few of us asked on your other post.