Can you post a picture?

What happens to the buds that do not bloom? Do they brown out or disappear (are they getting eaten by some pest)?

Sorry I took so long to reply. The buds are not getting eaten, right now there has got to bee at least 50 large flower buds, some of them have a couple of petal open around the edges. I will take a picture when it stops raining. I have had this plant for about 4-5 years, at first I was cutting it down in the fall, then discovered that is why I had no buds, now I don't prune and get lots of buds that won't bloom!!!

photos of hydrangea that won't bloom

Here is a link that might be useful: photobucket

It looks like you are growing a lacecap hydrangea, and it looks normal to me--although I've never grown a lacecap. One reason I've avoided them is because they do not get those big "mophead" blooms that many gardeners want from their hydrangeas. Were you expecting a mophead bloom? If so, you will have to plant a mophead instead of a lacecap.

I hope I haven't misunderstood your problem, but for a lacecap, your hydrangea is looking pretty good.

Kate

Kate is correct, you have a lacecap hydrangea. What you see is all you will get from this hydrangea. Although I think it looks pretty good because I like lacecaps.. I bought some aluminum sulfate at my garden center and added it to my lacecap. The flowers are now very deep dark blue and much more striking than they were before.

I have the same issue, and my blooms look like the ones pictured. however, i know they are not lacecap. i purchased all three plants and planted them when they were in full bloom- with large round blue blooms. completely opened. that was 2009. and what is pictured in the previous post and below is all i have had since. never pruned. full morning sun. dappled afternoon shade.

"They are not lacecap".

Well, what you have in your picture is a lacecap. If you are saying that you had mophead blooms before, you may have had two different plants intermixed in the pot. I never had had that happen (2 hydrangea plants in one pot) but it is possible. Closes I have come to that is mislabeled plants: my Nikko Blue turned out to be a lacecap but I bouhgt it in the Fall without blooms (mistake!); I decided I liked the lacecap anyways and it still blooms great for me. Ha!

Again, I am not sure if you mean that the plants once produced mopheads or both though. If you did get both and there have been no mophead blooms recently, it may still be there but not blooming. Or might have died. You would have to "search" thru the foliage and try to see if you can tell if you still have a mophead tangled up in there somewhere. The leaves would be similar; hopefully the green leaf color is slightly off so you can tell them apart.

these are 3 separate plants, purchased in 3 separate containers, each having full mophead blooms when planted. you are suggesting all three morphed into lacecap?

That's pretty much exactly what was said :-) A mophead type hydrangea cannot morph into a lacecap - there were either two separate plants in the container or what you thought was a mophead was really just a rather full blooming lacecap.....these can sometimes bloom with enough sterile flowers to look more like a mop than a lacecap.

Do you know the cultivar name of the three hydrangeas you are growing? That might help with clarification although mislabeling plants is quite common as well.

One that has visually confused me when I see it in pictures in Blue Wave. It is a lacecap but its blooms contain so many sepals (compared to other lacecaps) that, in some pictures, I assumed it was a mophead.

http://www.irgardencentre.com/product-p/hydrangea-macrophylla-blue-wa.htm

Often, regional growers have been known to toss three or more independently-grown plugs into a 3-gallon in order to "grow a sellable shrub faster." What they don't always realize is that plugs are often mislabeled or mishandled by the independent plug grower. It's good to have a nice rapport with your business partners but you can't trust many in such a hodgepodge industry with such spotty quality control. This practice of multi-plugging is lazy and irresponsible and does not grow healthy plants.

To make matters worse, lots of these "nurserymen" are like used car salesman. Only you have the real power to tell what's quality and what isn't.

Sometimes, paying $10-15 more can be worth it for a properly grown (and local) 3-gallon shrub, which clearly has ONE crown, with healthy uniform foliage and blooms around the entire circumference of the plant.

And what zone/location are you in? Do your hydrangeas experience dieback from winter kill or late spring freezes? If so, your final test should be to overwinter one of these suspect plants in a sheltered location to ensure no dead wood and blooming across the whole plant the following season. Then see which part is producing what.

(Also it would vastly help to start your own thread on the board, and use cultivar names you are questioning about. Without a cultivar name, "a mophead" or "a lacecap" does little to help anyone help you. There are hundreds of hydrangea cultivars which resemble each other, but behave very differently!)

I have annebelle hydrangeas and they were large established plays from a nursery. They were in full bloom when I bought them. This is the 3rd year and I have the and problem as above.

I, too, have an Annabelle.....lots of blooms and they are opening a tiny bit here and there but not fully and are turning brown. Any answers? We've had an unusal amount of rain...too wet?

Trickyma, a photo would help.

I have exactly same problem. Are plants stressed. It is very hot and humid this year with lots of rain. They had huge blooms last year and this summer have buds and very few flower on the edges

The first things that hydrangeas will do without when moisture is scarce & they are heat stressed are flower buds and open flowers. New shrubs that are not established may need up to 3 years to develop a large enough root system. Before the roots get large enough to absorb the amt of water needed as fast as they loose that moisture, they will wilt, droop and the blooms will do likewise. If conditions do not improve then the blooms will brown out and the leaves will brown out from the edges inwards.

Remember that we are now in the Summer so increase the amt of water per plant per watering until Fall temps arrive and moderate things. Hand water if necessary. Provide additional shade with umbrellas, chairs, shade cloth, etc, specially for plants that are new or somewhat new in the garden.

When the temperatures peak or remain hot, do not be surprised if blooms are few. We always get hit with 100-degree weather in July and August and part of September so even the roses take a break and produce little in terms of blooms. Actually, some of the rose blooms are also unusual in color shades too.

Luis_pr. You are right on. My Annabelles are 2 years old and although most of them did a great job blooming this year they all have a wilted look in the afternoon when sun is the strongest. When evening comes they all recover. I have a soaker hose but not sure how much water it gives them in an hour or so. I do water them individually on hot days. I will be patient and wait for them to root deeply.

Try providing enough water such that moisture reaches down to about 8" . In the summer with my soil, I up the waterings from 1 to 1.5 gallons of water per plant. Wilting episodes will never go away but as long as there is enough moisture in the soil, they should fix themselves by morning.

My Anna always wilted during the worst of the summer. I could not blame it though... temps near or above 100F require that the water be delivered with a snow cone!

Thank you so much for the advice. What do you mean by snow cone? The tip to be placed on plastic water bottle?
I love my Annabelle border and want them to be happy in my garden for many years to come.

Just a bad joke because it was above 100F here yesterday. ;0)

Perhaps Luis and I are dating ourselves since I don’t know if they are still popular, but when I was a kid back in the dark ages of the ‘60s snow cones were a frozen snack bought from a cart, basically shaved ice topped with syrup in a paper cone. Sweet, cold, and a total mess once they started melting!

Thanks for all these ideas guys- snow cones and margaritas while watering and admiring beautiful Annabelles.

Oh, God, yes, NHBabs. I remember stopping at various vendors in NH with my late MIL for snow cones or ice creams. But the ones down here make a killing now too.

Just had some snow cones a few days ago when I took Mom out shopping and it was in the 100F's. Actually, it was weird at first. I lost total control of the car and the brakes. The darn car kept reducing the speed, more and more, and even turned towards the shop selling these very cold snow cones. Trust me. There was absolutely nothing I could do to override the car. ;o)) Strawberry flavor! Hmmm, hmmm, hmmm.

As for gg48's suggestion of margarita flavors, I will have to wait for a summer party invite to my sister's and her hubby's machine. Y'all enjoy something cold this hot summer! Ha!

I have 2 types of hydrangea,a purple big leaf (newly planted few weeks ago, flowering beautifully,a few brown dry leaves but no biggy,I also have a pink smooth hydrangea also newly planted about a month ago,it was bought with no buds,it now has a number of buds but they all look like death,any reason why?? Soil is moist,I water and fertilized,Browning out on me.

Another year same problem. Lots of flowers but they do not open fully. Just on the edges. Lime a lace cap. I know they are Annabel since they bloomed beautiful couple years ago.

Here is how it looks

Annabelle comes from a native Hydrangea, H arborescens and has many sterile flowers and only a few fertile ones. This looks like a reversion back to the species type to me, with lots of little fertile flowers (as opposed to buds that aren’t opening) and only a few of the more ornamental sterile ones.

If you are located near me (central NH) you are welcome to come get a chunk of my Annabelle.

Anna: There are two types of bloomage that an arborescens hydrangea can have: lacecap or mophead. The mopheads produce round white balls and the most famous of those is called Annabelle.

The hydrangea in the above picture has a lacecap bloom instead. There are many arborescens varieties available for sale that are lacecaps but none should have the name Annabelle.

It is possible that when you bought the plant, it was mislabeled. Or the nursery employee may have erred when giving this one to you. In this case of a lacecap bloom, the inner part of the flower is THE flowers. Pollinators are attracted to the sepals and pollinate the flower in the middle. Yes, the "things" in the periphery of the flower, what looks like white petals, are not flowers and are called sepals instead.

Here are a few pictures or several types of lacecap Annabelles, all of which have proper names that do not include the word Annabelle in the name.

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_E5i-p5Gc3qs/TDYc8E5Q0cI/AAAAAAAAAu4/0ccBt7gv11k/s1600/5+hydrangea+white+dome.jpg

http://hoosiergardener.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/Hydrangea-Haas-plantsnouveau-edit.jpg

https://wildridgeplants.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/Hydrangea-arborescens-catalog-2013.jpg

This is what a mophead Annabelle (a true Annabelle) looks like:

http://plantinfo.co.za/userfiles/Hydrangea%20arborescence.jpg

In some cases, an arborescens mophead plant can revert to an arborescens lacecap. That is what NHBabs is talking about.

HU: Regarding the browning flower buds...

one possibility is that the shrub is not getting evenly moist soil. That means it likes the soil is to be moist at almost all times. No periods of moist soil, dry soil, moist soil again, etc. Annabelle is very picky in this regard and I have managed to kill one during winter when winter was dry and I turned the automated drip "off" and forgot to turn it back "on".

If you let the soil get a little too dry for its taste, the shrub aborts the blooms (all blooms, some blooms, just a few...). While the soil may be moist now, it probably was not moist enough before.

Another possibility: a late frost in your area may have zapped the opening blooms.

Louis and NHBobs- thank you very much for your comments. Have you ever experienced that a plant which reverts to lace cap form ever goes back to mophead? I hope they will. Last year I only had one “converter”, this year I might have 2 or 3. I am sad since I love mop heads. NHBobs thank you for your offer but I live in OH. A little too far ....

I have not had the problem with hydrangeas but rather with camellias. Its blooms reverted back to its parent form.

Louis- this is very sad news. I will give them couple more years. May be they will surprise me by becoming mopheads again.

this is one of the most interesting threads that I have read. I have limelights. 4 plants, planted at same time, came from same nursery and planted adjacent to each other. They are mature plants now. 2 bloomed profusely this year. The other 2 have scores of "blooms" which did not "open up" or rather "fully develop". (Very similar to the stories above.) We could not figure out how 4 identical plants, planted at same time, same age, same variety, same light, same pruning technique and same location could produce extravagant blossoming blooms on 2 plants and stunted blooms that never mature on the other 2. This at least gives me two theories, (different moisture and sterile blooms). I did notice that the bees were going CRAZY on the plants that bloomed more profusely.

Here is a photo of the blooms on the other two plants.

and a photo showing their location. We've waited about 6 weeks for them to further develop and it looks like it's not going to happen this year, however they did last year.

I may be totally off base, but could the limelight’s have been exposed to any herbicide? I know with roses, the herbicide damage causes the leaves and flowers to be very skinny and distorted and not open properly, so it’s just a thought

I have 4 year old Invincibelle hydraangeas. I have never had a problem with them until this year. The abundance of blooms do not fully open. I am in zone 6a

yes! Present, but oddly stunted from opening. I never did figure out what the problem was and we've since moved, so I have no idea if they rebounded in subsequent years. But I'm about to plant anew at our new location, so I would love to know.

We are having a lot of issues with aster yellows on hydrangea here in MN. i suspect this is your issue.