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Hydrangea: frost damage?

PottyforpotsPottyforpots Posts: 26
in Plants
My hydrangea looked healthy and green all over yesterday  and this morning (was very frosty overnight) but this afternoon I've noticed some of the leaves have gone floppy and semi translucent. Is this frost damage and if so, should I remove the affected leaves or leave them be? Thanks  

Posts

  • JacquimcmahonJacquimcmahon Posts: 1,039
    Looks like it. There are a few threads about this recently. Do a search and Have a look there has been a lot of good advice on them.
    Marne la vallée, basically just outside Paris 🇫🇷, but definitely Scottish at heart.
  • LynLyn Posts: 23,190
    If that tiny plant was mine I wouldn’t let it flower this year, I’d pick the bud right out so it makes stronger roots.  Being so small it will put a strain on its growth making flowers and roots. 
    Gardening on the wild, windy west side of Dartmoor. 

  • bertrand-mabelbertrand-mabel Posts: 2,697
    One of our plants in the ground for some years has suffered with frost damage over the last few days.
    We keep hoping that the low temps will go away but that seem to get lower and lower and then the NE winds.
    Plants though on the whole do come back and that is what we all look forward to.
  • luis_prluis_pr Posts: 123
    edited April 2021
    I have seen some frost injuries but a translucent tone was never present. Wow. Usually, when there is frost injures the leaves, the sap is flowing and it freezes and forms ice crystals that cause the damage and color changes. Dehydration then also contributes to the injury.

    The lack of color is as if the green chlorophyll is "not there" any longer... It is too early for sucking insects but just in case, have you seen any? I did not see any on that one picture.

    Can you comment some more on the plant maintenance/history. The plant looks small; is it a plant someone you are growing from a cutting? From when until when does it receive sunlight? Morning sun only, I presume? How cold did it get or where are you? Has it been winter protected (covered with blankets, frost cloth, etc.)? Has it been fertilized ever since it was in the pot? How much do you water and how often?

    The good news in all this is that you "have broccoli" in that stem so the flower bud in that stem is opening and will bloom in a few days or a week. So whatever is going on, is not killing the bloom (at least not impacting it yet). If the flower bud turns from green to brown then the cold temps or 'whatever' zapped it too.
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