Peegee Hydrangea tree dying off
This is my 5th spring with a Peegee hydrangea tree and it's done beautifully every spring. This spring it was budded out nicely, leaves were starting to pop (it was always one of the last to come back in my zone 5) and I thought all was well when we left for vacation Memorial weekend. Wednesday we came home and I walked the front walk to see what was on the front porch and stopped at my tree. It's leaves are turning brown and wilting and appear to be dying off. Can Hydrangea trees get blight? It looks almost like it has a sucker or something growing out from about 5 inches above the root line down.
It's midnight here so I can't post pictures, but we did have a pretty nasty winter and some frosts lasting well into what is normally "spring". I lost an eastern redbud (never even budded) and a few of my boxwoods and rhododendrons got a little winter damage.
I don't plan to rip the tree out until its good and dead, unless it would be harmful to other plants in my landscaping area (rhododendrons, perennials, burning bushes, weigala). Any tips anyone has with these trees is appreciated. I plan to go pick my local nursery's brain as to a more hardy ornamental replacement if it is toast. :( It had such pretty huge football sized blooms every year, and all I ever had to do was fertilize a few times a year and prune it back in the fall.
here's the base of the tree, which looks like it's got an offshoot and some sort of fungus to me.
sorry for the poor quality, they're on my iphone camera snapped while my daughter was eating lunch.
It's midnight here so I can't post pictures, but we did have a pretty nasty winter and some frosts lasting well into what is normally "spring". I lost an eastern redbud (never even budded) and a few of my boxwoods and rhododendrons got a little winter damage.
I don't plan to rip the tree out until its good and dead, unless it would be harmful to other plants in my landscaping area (rhododendrons, perennials, burning bushes, weigala). Any tips anyone has with these trees is appreciated. I plan to go pick my local nursery's brain as to a more hardy ornamental replacement if it is toast. :( It had such pretty huge football sized blooms every year, and all I ever had to do was fertilize a few times a year and prune it back in the fall.
here's the base of the tree, which looks like it's got an offshoot and some sort of fungus to me.
sorry for the poor quality, they're on my iphone camera snapped while my daughter was eating lunch.