<p>I have always loved hydrangeas, but never had any in our yard. I was excited to find a 2 pack at Sam's Club this spring...I lovingly planted them, watered them, fed them. They were both just starting to take root with leaves. Until today. The mean weed wacker man chopped one down almost to the root (there are a few leaves left). He thought it was a weed (!) ....right, weeds are spaced equally apart next to the rose bushes and in between the fence posts....Ugh! Does anyone know if it will it grow back? What can I do to try to preserve it?</p>
<p>My experience with hydrangieas has been that they not only can take a heavy pruning, they respond very well to it and thrive. However, I have never had to face the evil weed whacking issue. Good luck.</p>
<p>My husband weed -whacked a couple of mine last year before I shreiked loud enough for him to stop (one was almost to the ground, the other was left really ragged). They were pretty sad looking last year, but they've come back fabulously this year. Just baby them the best you can and hopefully they'll be ok. It just may take a while.</p>
<p>Oh, No--that dreaded disease! DH has bouts with the weed-whacking disease AND the power washing disease....Everything gets whacked and washed, sometimes to a fault! </p>
<p>Good luck with the hydrangeas! A little TLC, miracle grow and time...you should be good to go! In my experience they're pretty hardy...</p>
<p>Thanks for the replies. I feel a little better about its chance for survival now... I am going to go out tomorrow and get some Miracle Grow fertilizer and make sure it stays watered. I am also going to buy several more plants to make myself feel better. :)</p>
<p>Beil, Yes, what is it about weed wackers and power washers? Mine has an additional affliction- the leaf blower. You had better tie down everything in a half mile vicinity of the house when he goes to get that. This year he bought one that strapped on his back. When he put that thing on the first time.....oh my.</p>
<p>My DH is a menace with a power trimmer that he sometimes insists on using on our shrubs. Makes them look like clipped poodles! I would rather clip them manually into a more "natural" form, but he does not miss many opportunities to use power tools. :)</p>
<p>My DH has managed to mangle summer flowers watering with the hose.<br>
He thinks it's easier to stand back twenty feet and blast them from across the yard thereby beating their tender stems into a mush, than dragging the hose ten feet further and giving them a gentle sprinkle. He always acts surprised when a flower grouping or small bush looks as if it has taken a nasty karate chop after his watering exercises.</p>
<p>My husband pulled up all of my bleeding hearts (probably some problem with my political leanings) about two weeks ago. "They looked like weeds to me," he said. Grrrrr.</p>
<p>He tends to be the thrifty one, so I said, "It's really not a problem, the nursery has many more. I'll go buy new ones." Totally ticked me off.</p>
<p>My puppy chewed an oak leaf hydrangea to the ground, then dug it up - I found a few roots and twigs (no leaves). Years later it looks much better than the one he left alone. Don't give up hope.</p>
<p>MD Mom:
Don't go to the nursery just yet. My bleeding hearts self sow like crazy. I yank them all around this time of year and they always come back bigger and better the next year. They are almost a weed for me!</p>
<p>Thanks, twomules. I am not going to the nursery. I was just threatening because I knew it would irk him that I would go buy more. I have bunches of them in the back yard too. This was not hubby's first offense!</p>
<p>Dicentra is poisonous some sources say- so don't let puppies chew on your bleeding hearts.</p>
<p>My Dh loves his weed whacker, power washer and leaf blower too! He also has a chain saw and he takes the entire summer off! No living thing, including he himself, is safe!</p>
<p>It will come back only if the roots had enough time to settle in. Depending on the variety, you may not get flowers this year because some types only develop flowers on the second year growth.</p>
<p>My husband did that to my baby last year. I haven't forgiven him for it, but the plant looks great this year. It was rich blue before the attack, it's feeling pink this year. My husband isn't a plant guy so that blew his mind. I told him it's showing that it hates him.</p>
<p>The only way to keep husband from wrecking my plants is to beat him to the trimming around them.</p>
<p>The power yard-tool addiction that manifests itself in the burbs this time of year is very concerning. There is a group in my neighborhood that are going to arrange an intervention for a gentleman down the street who is waaay too attached to his wood chipper.</p>
<p>
[quote]
There is a group in my neighborhood that are going to arrange an intervention for a gentleman down the street who is waaay too attached to his wood chipper.
[/quote]
Have you seen his wife lately?</p>
<p>My H killed a red oak that I had planted in the planting strip with the line trimmer. ( I replanted it with a scarlet oak as part of the city tree program)
However- I pulled out ALL our sod and made garden beds- so he can get rid of all the gas powered tools ( except my chainsaw).</p>