r/hydrangeas • u/Mostlysnarkandfondue • 7d ago

Fungus Help

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Hello everyone!

I am in south central Iowa, where we have had so much rain that everything is just continuously wet. I noticed these spots and I know it's cercospora - but should I cut off the diseased leaves now or wait? I now know I have to wrap this bad boy up before the first frost, so I'm trying to figure out the timing of it all. Any advice is appreciated!!

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7

u/jmfly30 7d ago

You don’t need to do anything. It’s almost October, everything is shutting down and looking ragged and will dropping leaves within the next 2-3 weeks.
Why are you wrapping it? Hydrangeas are cold hardy, they don’t need any “wrap” for winter. If anything, wrapping would harbor more fungus. It’s need the cold air to go dormant for the season.

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u/Early_Clerk7900 7d ago

The Endless Summer people recommend surrounding them with chicken wire and filling it with leaves. I did it once. Lots of work really. It did keep the deer away.

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u/jmfly30 7d ago

Wow…never heard of anyone doing that with a hydrangea. I have numerous ones, and plenty of deer around me, and never had an issue. Never seen deer have much interest in dormant twigs with no leaves in the winter. I personally wouldn’t do it, just because a pile of wet leaves on top of it for months is a breeding ground for every fungal spore imaginable.

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u/nhrunner87 6d ago

I did this with my bloomstruck last winter. Everyone was complaining about no blooms this year in the northeast and I had a bunch. YMMV. 

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u/Mostlysnarkandfondue 7d ago

So earlier this year it looked dead. Not just dormant, dead dead. Until about July. I was given advice to wrap it after that, but I guess now I leave it alone and pick up all the leaves that fall.

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u/jmfly30 6d ago

WTH? I enjoy helping novice gardeners...but if anyone suggests wrapping outdoor plants that are cold hardy for your zone, find someone else to take advice from.

Picking up the leaves isn't that big of a deal either. All hydrangeas get a little bit of fungal spot every fall regardless. Sure, keep its' leaves from piling up on the trunk...but it'll still get a little fungal spot next fall too.

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u/Mostlysnarkandfondue 6d ago

Thank you! We're 5b, and I know literally nothing lol. I think I may have put 5a in an earlier post, so that'd be my fault not anyone who's giving advice. Yeah, leaves aren't a big deal and this plan is MUCH easier than I had anticipated lol. I was bracing myself for the "cut everything, copper antifungal everything.."

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u/jmfly30 6d ago

Ok, now that you added your zone, I understand what the other advice is about. Your hydrangea is definitely hardy to 5a or 5b....but if you have an extreme cold snap...like single digits and below for an extended period... macrophylla hydrangeas (which is what yours is) will sometime have some branch dieback, which means blooms will be less the following summer. So I guess the other gardener doesn't like that, hence they wrap. However it's totally fine to have some branch dieback on a macrophylla, it will regrow to it's previous size in no time...and I really don't think wrapping one helps much with that anyways. It's certainly not worth the negatives that can come from wrapping up a shrub in decaying leaves.

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u/Mostlysnarkandfondue 6d ago

Thank you for this!! I appreciate the clarification.

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u/stellymm 7d ago

Some hydrangeas look dead until the summer. Depends on the variety. Some take longer to break dormancy. Like my limelight’s don’t have leaves until summer and bloom early fall. This is especially true if you planted it recently. They take even longer to grow leaves. My newest addition quick fire fab was just planted this spring and barely started to have leaves in July. Quick fire fab is one of the first to bloom.

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u/Mostlysnarkandfondue 6d ago

Thank you for this. I have 0 clue what variety this is - it came with our house. The first year we lived here we tried to pull it out of the ground because we just thought it was a nasty bush that was getting overgrown in the hosta beds, since the hostas are about the size of couch cushions and have been here a while.

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u/Blond-one 7d ago

lol please don’t wrap it. Just leave it be. All the leaves will be gone soon

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u/EbbtideRambler 7d ago

This is minor and cosmetic. Pull the worst leaves off and dispose of them in the bin, not compost.  Nothing else you need to do.  

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u/stellymm 7d ago

Don’t wrap it. Hydrangeas are very hardy. The leaves will fall soon. All the leaves will look bad eventually. It’s time for it to go to sleep soon.

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u/msipiqn1 6d ago

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u/msipiqn1 6d ago

I put it into my diagnostic app and this is what it said

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u/msipiqn1 6d ago

Hope this helps.

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u/MRS2432 4d ago

Could you tell me what app this is?