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You are viewing a single post made by dyzzypyxxy in the thread called Help me save my hydrangea (black stems, brown spots on stems).
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Jun 20, 2016 8:30 AM CST
Name: Elaine
Sarasota, Fl
The one constant in life is change
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Well done, Vanessa I think you've saved it. If you have time today, get a new, bigger pot and some fresh potting mix. That plant is what we call "root bound" which means it had filled its old pot with roots and had nowhere to go. Yes, anything that has turned brown probably won't recover, but that doesn't matter. Once you get this plant re-potted it will be beautiful again, and grow too!

The new pot should be an inch or two bigger than the one it was in, and maybe a little deeper. Don't go too big. Be sure the new pot has drainage holes.

Once the plant is soaked nicely (the flower heads might even perk up!) and you're ready to re-pot you will want to tease the mass of roots out a little bit. You want to help it to grow new roots out into the new soil. A kitchen fork or a pair of chop sticks works great for this. Wet the new potting soil before you put it in the pot - it's sometimes hard to get it well wetted in the pot. Again, a bowl or bucket works well for this. I usually put a piece of newspaper or paper towel in the bottom of the pot before starting to fill with soil. This keeps the new soil from washing straight out the drain holes. The paper will disintegrate pretty quickly and by then the soil will be nicely firmed in place. You don't want to pack the soil too firmly in the new pot but it will compact itself once the plant is in place.
Elaine

"Success is stumbling from failure to failure with no loss of enthusiasm." –Winston Churchill

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