Hello fellow hydrangea lovers,

So my poor babies have been suffering from a serious spider mite infestation, along with a few other plants in my garden. I'm a new garner basically learning as im faced with each new issue, and i actually had no idea it was spider mites at first. I saw webs but thought it was just spiders, and unrelated to the fact that my plant was deteriorating. I thought maybe i was underwatering, or it was sunscorch, or snails... I fixed all those problems, and while the plant thanked me for it by putting on new growth, inothing ever even got a chance to grow out completely before becoming discolored and drying to a crisp. Then, my very young potted wisteria began to suddenly shrivel up and die all in about two weeks time which forced me into a desperate panic. The local nursery educated me on how to identify the oroblem as spider mites, and when i got home, i finally realized the same thing was all over my hydrangeas and had been for weeks now! Face slap!

Basically, there is a LOT of damage and on some plants many leaves have fallen off. The poor things are still Producing flowers by some miracle but they are about 4 inches across, rather than the usual, oh i dont know, 10 inchess! I sprayed them down with a miticide, but what else can i do to help these revive? I hear that getting rid of these mites can be as easy as hosing the affected plant down every evening so the foliage isnt as dry, but i think i read on here before that hydrangeas dont like to get their leaves wet...Or is that only a problem during the day?

How can i avoid infestations in the future and how can i spot the pronlem earlier? Am i dealing with it correctly right now? I would appreciate any help from you more experienced gardeners.

Also, many of my leaves are also chewed up and i have no idea by what. There arent really any snails in sight as ive been applying Sluggo, but they still seem nibbled at. Is this also from the spider mites?

Thank you all your help!