@FlyMeToTheMoon , when I did it this week I brought 3-4 cups of water to a boil, poured the boiling water in a vase and then directly put the hydrangea stems in the boiling water - they were covered probably 5-6 inches. Leave them in there and let the water naturally cool - a couple hours later they looked fantastic!
Thanks for the tip. I’m also curious if it works on lilacs. I just planted a hydrangea in my front yard. Nearly everything except moss dies where I put it, so we will see what happens. It was just an inexpensive pot I had on the table for Easter.
I didn’t think you could kill basil with sun, but they do need a lot of water if they are in containers in sunny spots. When we lived in Pasadena, I had a basil plant that was about four feet tall in a container.
When we moved from our last house it broke my heart to leave my giant limelight hydrangea. The blossoms were enormous, some of them almost a foot long.
Thank you @Gourmetmom and @abasket. Interesting explanation. When I know the rationale behind a procedure it’s much easier for me to make sense of it.
I’m going to try both of your procedures with a bouquet of lilacs and see if there is a difference between the two. I’m hoping this works as well for lilacs as for hydrangeas.
Let us know how it works on the lilacs Flying - your stems will be our guinea pig!
Anyone know about pruning them in the spring? My DH just cut out a big chunk of my big hydrangea (grrrrrrr) and I really should prune it for symmetry, but am I then losing all my blooms this year? We are in zone 8b
Hydrangeas are particular about pruning.
Some bloom on old wood, so you can prune in early summer./spring, just cut back to the buds.
( oak leaf,macrophyla)
Some bloom on new growth, so you want to prune in winter, ( paniculta, arborescens)
If he already took a big chunk that is 1/3 of the plant, I wouldn’t trim any more this season, except if it blooms on old wood, you can still prune back to pair of buds.
Cass Turnbull is the pruning goddess.
http://youtu.be/aG5a1pV_MAA
Now I have an image in my head of the top buck addressing the herd: “So get this guys–they formed a committee and send out a survey. No joke! Guess we’re good for another year–bon appetit!”
LOL MommaJ!
This may be a stupid question:
I have hydrangeas in my front garden and I water them as often as I can in the summer. Should I be using boiling water that has cooled a bit to water them with? Or just regular/room temp? Any one know? Thanks! How often do they get fed?
chc-Mine are well-established and do fine with regular flowerbed irrigation. I think the boiling water trick is for cut flowers, only. How much water they get depends upon the weather and the dryness of the soil. It usually means twice a week around here (Los Angeles)- once if you’re deep watering. We have clay soil that holds water pretty well, so they can go a week. I feed them once in the spring- probably could do more but they still seem to bloom.
@abasket - That is, indeed, a keeper trick. Sorry I started a deer tangent, maybe that should have been for the “say it here” thread.
Perfect description, parent of people!
I feel for you, deega! I love the limelights and have wanted some for a few years. But they are really too big to constantly spray, and I know the deer would eat them. I have enough trouble keeping my Annabelles sprayed. This year, I have ordered some pellets that you bury next to the plants, and the hot pepper or whatever they’re made of is taken up into the leaves, so they don’t taste good. I’m going to do both, it takes a few weeks for the hot stuff to be taken up.
I am going to try the hot water trick as well, when the lilacs bloom.
I’m going to contract a service to spray my yard this year. The deer around here are not as bad as the rabbits, which are terrible on hosta and other flowers. The same spray is supposed to work for both.
Thanks, moonchild. I don’t have a green thumb and some of the plants actually thrive…in spite of me! 
I’ll be feeding them this week and maybe again in the Fall…mine are relatively new and not well established yet…but I love seeing the flowers when they do decide to cooperate!
No problem on the deer conversation - we can only talk about hydrangeas for so long!!! 
I have loved hydrangeas since I was very young. If you grew up in Jersey and spent time at the shore, you probably do, too! We have several bushes in our yard, and a variety of colors.
My mop heads are getting ready to burst with blooms. Until then, I love looking at the variegated leaf. To me, a variegated leaf adds a whole new dimension of interest. Ditto for my Oakleaf Hydrangeas when the leaf turns colors.
Back to the subject of wilting flowers. I performed a little experiment last night. Mr bought me a bunch of roses. I split it into 2 groups, the treatment and the control of sorts. Every rose in the first group had its stem cut at the bottom and then dipped into simmering water for 3 seconds. The control group received cuts only. In the morning, the treated group was nice and perky, and the control group looked droopy. I repeated the trick with the droopy roses, and they are doing so much better! Now I have to remember the trick.
Thank you Mad Scientist BB for testing this hypothesis! Very interesting to hear that the brief dipping was effective and on roses too!