Is this hydrangea dead?

[gardeningnovice5]

I planted it a few months ago but have forgotten to water it in the last month or so. Now it looks like this. Is it worth persevering or is it too late?

On a side note, does anyone know what the green weeds next to it are? They are all over my garden and it’s a real job to keep on top of them!

It's not completely dead yet so give it plenty of water and it might recover. It probably won't flower again until next year though.

I had five Vanille Fraise hydrangeas in my front garden and we had a hot, dry summer with a hosepipe ban and I thought they had all died, but the following summer four out of five of them made a small attempt to pop out a flower and a few leaves and the summer after that all four were more or less back to normal (the fifth one was genuinely dead).

I would try giving it a really good soaking at the roots early in the morning or evening, avoiding the hottest part of the day.

I'd cut it back to an inch of its life, keep moist but not overly wet and it shoukd come back next year. Bear in mind that hydrangeas need lots of water.

I think your weed is chickweed.

"Where there's life there's hope" applies

Before you cut it back for next year's regrowth look up whether this type grows on new wood or dead wood. I had a beautiful hydrangea bush planted in my house because it was one of the flowers in my wedding bouquet and thoughtlessly cut it right back expecting it to grow back.

Yep, it grew on dead wood so it stayed 2 inches for years 😭

I'd water it from.now, and see what happens next year.

Weed is chickweed. Just pull it out.

I am pretty sure that what the op has is a plain old mop head and fine to cut back.

Thanks everyone! No idea what type it is in terms of new wood/dead wood unfortunately. How often should I water it - daily?

The chickweed is a real pain - it springs up everywhere constantly! Is it possible to eliminate it or am I stuck with it?

The weeds - quite pretty when they flower with small yellow-green heads - are spurge, Latin name Euphorbia. They are all over my garden too. New ones every day, it seems!

Sadly these aren’t Euphorbia (which I really like!)

I also have clover constantly springing up everywhere…

If you break the stem of the weed, does white sap ooze out? If so, it is a euphorbia. But not the kind grown as a choice garden plant. You will eliminate it if you weed more frequently. Tiny seedlings can be uprooted and left on the surface to die. They keep returning because at some point, a mother plant set seed. Seedlings will continue to spring up until the viable seeds in the soil have all germinated.

Thanks! No sap in these so I don’t think it’s Euphorbia. I’ve googled now and see there is a type of Euphorbia that looks very similar to this though! I had no idea you could get such a wide range of varieties - the euphorbia I have in my garden looks very different.

It needs proper watering every day in this hot weather, evening or early morning, a good soak. It will recover.
Just leave it and trim it down next spring , remove the dead flowers as a minimum.

Thanks @Branster . Remove the dead flowers now?

Hydrangeas like a lot of water and do not like the sun. If it's in a very sunny place it will get scorched even if you water it every day. It might be worth moving it to a shadier spot.

I'd leave them, let it dry out naturally in the autumn then trim in spring. I think it sort of protects the plant over winter.
Cutting it now might stress the plant. Just concentrate on watering and don't worry about any dry bits. Health this year, looks next year.
Just regular plain water for now.

Get an app on your phone that tells you what the plant is that you've taken a photo of. It tells you what is wrong with it and how to fix the problem. There's a few you can choose from in the app store.

Do hydrangeas need lots of water even when well established? If so it was probably a bad choice of mine to plant one, as it sounds quite high maintenance (and expensive!)

Yes they do. Ours are nearly 10 years old and droop if not watered. They survive though.

No, once it's fully established it should be fine with normal rainfall and the occasional top up of water in a long dry spell. Different varieties can be trickier than others but that looks like a fairly standard mop head and all of my mop heads and lace caps have been fine (although is does rain more in Ireland and the UK), it's the paniculatas (Vanille Fraise) that I have found to be a bit tricky in dry years

Just noticed I've said the opposite to Branster, so that was useful for you.

😂😂😂
Some varieties are sturdier than others.
Ours need watering all the time. However nobody waters when we are away, they don't look great when coming back from a trip but they do revive if they are already established.

Don’t prune it, just water through dry periods and otherwise leave until Feb/march. Hydrangeas do need a fair amount of water, hence the name. I have some very established ones that are under trees so get pretty crispy looking in a hot summer but they always come back again. You need to water yours because it is relatively new.