Question
I live in Nothern Kentucky about a stones throw away from the Ohoio River.  I'm not sure what zone that would be.  My hydrangea bush looks healthy.  It bloomed in the spring and the leaves were a pretty green color.  Now as we have a horrible span of no rain this summer in this area I've noticed lots of spots on the leaves and the green color no longer on part of the bush.  I have no idea what happend.  I water it every other night.  Do you have any ideas of what I can use to get the green color back

Answer
Jeff, ever talk to a Tech Support person about a problem with your computer?

Notice that 99 percent of the time the answer is:

"Have you tried rebooting your computer?"

Now, let's go to your poor, sick Hydrangea.  The one that was doing so well until it stopped raining.  You water it every other night.  Have you tried rebooting your computer?  Have you tried watering it correctly?

Sorry, these two answers fill up my life.

Water REALLY WELL.  Just once.  Then let it dry out.

Otherwise you water out all the air around the roots.  And all kinds of things start to go wrong with your hard drive.  DRENCH your Hydrangea.  Give it a nice big drink.  Then S T O P STOP!!!!

Watch it use the water.  These are very thirsty plants.

If it wilts, it is time to water again.

Now, if the roots are damaged, it is even more important to water correctly.  I would also like to know how the soil bed was prepared for this Hydrangea.  These are not demanding shrubs, but they should bloom big and bright in July and there should be no spots on the leaves.  Please look over the pictures at this University of Alabama website page for Hydrangea Diseases and tell me if any of this looks familiar:

http://www.aces.edu/pubs/docs/A/ANR-1212/ANR-1212.pdf

A picture is worth a thousand words.

But your watering my good friend is part of the problem -- it is not going to help if you wipe out the root system with TLC.  Put down the watering can, and check that website.  Let me know what you think.

That said, we are nearing the end of the season, it is less than a month now until Summer's end and the slow, steady walk toward Winter has begun.  Your Hydrangea next spring will be off to a roaring start.  You'll get another chance.  Let's figure out what went wrong this year.  Things will get better.  Those bold, beautiful, bright flowers are worth it.