Yes, when they are forced to bloom early, the blooms may also age early and start to change colors early. It is very normal on newly purchased/planted hydrangeas. The process cannot be reversed but if the shrub is remontant, it will rebloom later on again. Dappled sunlight is just fine. Next year, things should return to the normal start times for all of this.

The Miracle Gro can also be changing the flower color.....Hydrangeas are reactive to soil ph for flower color. For example, ours here are always blue, we have acid soil. Neighbor thought he'd be helpful and dumped a bunch of fertilizer on our side of the fence and our blue hydrangeas turned a muddy green color which lasted for two years..

Shrubs do not need to be fertilized once a week in the first place. Miracle Gro is good for potted annuals not landscape plants. It is a quick boost not long term nutrients.

Did you buy potted florist plants or nursery stock? Do you know their names? Some bloom once a year, some more than once.

Another fyi, potting soil is for pots. You want compost or planting mix when you plant. Won't hurt anything but it is expensive to keep using it when you plant.

Thanks for both of your input. You can tell that Im a novice gardener because I thought miracle grow was to boost the plant, not just the blooms. I was just hoping to give them the best foundation possible so they could become well established.

The plants that I bought were nursery stock (I purchased them at the local farmers market) and they were mophead hydrangeas. That's all I really know about them. On the tag it said that they should be planted with a mix of potting soil and some time of moss so thanks for the heads up on the planting mix and compost.

Is there anything I can do to ensure that they will get well established or just keep them watered and let mother nature take care of the rest? Thanks again for the help.

Godslittlerose, how are your hydrangeas doing 4 years later? I'm currently in the same situation you were in 4 years ago. I bought my pink hydrangeas from a nursery/green house and they are in my kitchen. I've had them for two months and they turned green? Ant advice?

Hydrangea blooms do not stay a given color all year round. After a while, the blooms will age and begin a series of color changes that varies from one variety to another. Some pink ones will begin to develop greens then purples or darker shades of pink, etc. ending in brown-ish. Enjoy.

A good trick is to learn which things bloom and when, and then mix them around in your beds as to not have big color voids at any point during the growing season. If your blooms are spent to the point where you no longer enjoy them, cut them off!! Lots of varieties rebloom, and are much more likely to do so if you do that.

I am experiencing green blooms also. I bought a hydrangea with pink blooms. It continued to bloom with pink blooms for a couple years. I always cut the old spent blooms off. But this year after I cut the old blooms off, it bloomed with green blooms. Wondering why? I miss the more colorful pink blooms. I read somewhere to put used coffee grounds in the pot for pink blue blooms & ground egg shells for pink. So, in order to try to change it from blooming only green, I am trying this. I put coffee in the dirt on one side & egg shells on the other. Just did it, so no results yet. My hydrangea is quite large & in a large pot. Anyone had any luck with this?

The problem that you describe seems to be premature fading of the blooms. This can be caused by weather issues (unusually dry or hot conditions). The blooms can either skip the pink/blue phases and go to greenish colors. Or they can go directly from white to brown. During the 1-3 years that new shrubs have to get established in the garden, they are likely to be more sensitive to moisture and heat issues and this may do this more often than a 10-year old shrub might.

Coffee grounds will have a small amount of nitrogen, little acidity and the egg shells will have some amounts of potassium or calcium. Plus smaller amounts of other minor but good minerals.

The "damage" to the blooms has already been done so these ingredients will not be enough to help now ..sorry.. :o( since you would need to replace the blooms with new blooms. But, I would leave them grounds and shells there. Just be careful not to add much of them.

In the northern states, we are probably heading towards the cold part of the year and you do not want to add lots of nitrogen, since that would keep the plant in "grow" mode just as cold snaps get closer and closer.

In the southern areas like mine, low nitrogen or zero nitrogen fertilizers would be fine since the plants tend to go dormant between mid-November and late December.

I know this thread is a couple of years old, but EXCELLENT information from gardengal48!