British Columbia: Vancouver BC Hydrangeas ~ Doing Badly this Year?

We first noticed our own beautiful hydrangea was looking progressively worse, after this spring's very good start. Now we notice hydrangeas all over Vancouver are not looking at all well.

Many hydrangeas are just fine. But right beside them will be hydrangeas that look terrible.

I realize plants' blossoms fade and die, but I think hydrangeas normally have beautifully persistent flowers throughout the summer.

Am I just seeing things? Am I wrong? Or is there a hydrangea affliction this summer in Vancouver? We feel pretty bad about our own.

The photo I'm including is "just any" hydrangea, not ours, that exemplifies what I'm describing.

Thanks for insights or advice.

 

mine are fine - i have the plain old lacecaps ---- and a "blushing bride" ---- the photo looks like water damage - do you think that's possible? It looks like lots of water - then hot sun - which we did have a few weeks ago, rain at night, then hot sun in the day, didn't we? I think that the reason mine are fine is that they are in the shade and didn't suffer that hot sun after the heavy rain.

 

Thank you, Georgia Strait.

Any other people? The tendency is all over the city, from Stanley Park throughout the West End to Kerr Street at Marine Drive in South(east) Vancouver.

As I said, we see "perfect" hydrangeas right beside dead-looking hydrangeas. Same soil, same sun, same rainfall. And last year, this just did not seem to happen.

Same owners in most cases, too. Same watering techniques.

I've noticed as the colours begin to fade, the remaining colour in the blossoms becomes increasingly spotty, as islands of colour. Here are some new pictures I took August 1st on Comox Street a block or two up from Denman, in the heart of Vancouver's West End.

The affected Hydrangeas include (at least) both the Lacecaps and Mopheads (H. macrophylla). Typically we are seeing bright colours that seem just right except for a few heads losing a little bit of their colour, as we'd expect more in later summer. Once we began looking, however, we saw this commonly "everywhere" this year. And it became apparent in late July, which seems so early.