You’re welcome Jeannie — and I’d pinch myself too if I lived there year-round! At this point, I’d let the brown leaves die off the shrub and fall to the ground. Then you can clean them all up for the season. There are so many different varieties of mophead hydrangeas, that it’s possible the variety your in-laws have plus where it is sited in their landscape just makes them not have as many brown leaves. Plus…a landscaper helps too, but I think that’s cheating. LOL You can also just take the brown leaves off of the “front-facing” parts of the shrubs — the parts that people see — if you want to somewhat hide the brown leaves. Up to you! Happy Fall!

Hi Laura,
Thanks so much for your reply. Yes Nantucket this time of year is beautiful. Nantucket is an amazing place to honeymoon! It’s really different vacationing here and living here but still it’s magical. There are days I still pinch myself that we live here! Personally, October is my favorite month (could be my bday month) LOL
Thank you so much for these tips! I will certainly implement once spring comes. My only question, there are ALOT of brown leaves now! Do I just cut them all off or just as much as I can or leave them at this point? We only just moved into the house in June so it’s our first year with the hydrangeas. My in laws have hydrangeas at their house but they have the ones with white flowers? They have the mop heads too but they had a landscaper so not sure if I ever saw brown leaves on them.
Appreciate the time you’re taking to answer!

Hi Jeannie — First off, congratulations on your new home! I adore Nantucket, and we spent our honeymoon there years ago and didn’t want to leave! It was in late October, so no tourists and just wonderful people so friendly and the weather was that wonderful New England Fall weather…with a Nor’Easter mixed in for dramatic effect! LOL Secondly — I’m in love with the picturesque mophead hydrangeas on Nantucket and throughout the New England coastal towns. That’s where I first fell in love with them when I lived in Boston. If these were my mopheads, I’d pick off the brown spotted leaves, and you’ll already feel better about the hydrangeas. Then spray them — the remaining leaves and stems, to hopefully take care of any remaining fungus. I even lightly spray on the ground below and around the hydrangeas on the soil, or mulch, or whatever type of groundcover/soil you have. I love to leave the flowers on for Winter interest. Yes, as the Winter goes on, they could blow off or become ragged looking, but you’ll usually get a few months of pretty dried flowers out of them. (I know you probably already know this having lived there and seen other hydrangeas in Winter.) There’s no need for a pricey landscaper, so yes you can do this yourself! I realize it’s early October already, and Fall is setting in, so it may be difficult to actually know the proper state of your hydrangeas. However, don’t cut them back, just leave them be. Since they are mature, it means they’ve been through all sorts of weather and fungus and bugs and so on. So next Spring, once they have leafed out, begin a preventative spray routine. I would start with Neem Oil — use something like Bonide 3-in-1 — as a gentle preventative sprayed either early in the morning or in the evening after pollinators have gone to sleep (or haven’t woken up yet.) See how that does. The black and brown spots happen when we get super hot and humid weather — the humidity is the worst contributor to this problem. So my guess is these hydrangeas looked gorgeous for most of the Summer, and then developed the spots. (Although you may know best, if you were familiar with the house before you moved in.) I hope this helps, as it sounds like you inherited a wonderful garden! And no, I’m not jealous. Ok, slightly. Maybe more than slightly! LOL

Hi Helen — I would dig them up, definitely! Time for something with MUCH less work required on your part! I planted Panicle Hydrangeas in the place of my mophead hydrangeas. They are hardier, don’t need any fussing over, and don’t suffer from black spot or fungus, etc. So that’s the variety of hydrangea I recommend to plant. There are so many lovely ones to choose from! If you watch my most recent September Garden Tour video on my Garden Sanity YouTube channel, I show five different varieties that I have in my front yard. (I have more in my back yard too!) I hope this helps!

Our husbands are never happy when having to remove plants! Ask my poor husband — he had to use a pick axe last year to remove some Knock Out Rose bushes…and it wasn’t fun! Hang in there!

Hi Laura, I had the purple than brown spots, spray after spray, this year with the the worst they have ever been, now covered in white fungus, flowers turned brown because of the weather, cut it back and dehead them first time had to do this I don’t do this till spring, it be looks a sorry site , thinking of digging the whole thing up I think this battle is lost , can I plant a hydrangea in the same place.

Thank you so much for your reply and how detailed you were. I will definitely check out your videos. I have to put something in place of the one I took out, so want to make an informed decision. Hubby was not happy trying to get it out (he had to use a rope and his truck!), so I must plant something that will last and look good. Thank you again!! Colleen

Hi Shelley — Laura here from Garden Sanity, although I know you directed your question to Deb. If the fungus — whichever one you might have that causes black spot — is in the soil, then planting the same plants will result in them also getting the fungus. It’s frustrating but that’s what happens. If you cut them back now, you may in fact be removing the flower buds for the following year which are developing already. Endless Summer blooms both on old and new wood. So even if you remove the buds from the older wood, you will still get some flowers next year from the new stems. As for replacing the soil, you can do that, but an easier method will be to plant something else instead of more mophead hydrangeas. I had Endless Summer and loved them, so I realize this is a bittersweet decision. I swear by panicle hydrangeas because they are much hardier and a lot less fussy. I replaced my mopheads with Little Quick Fire panicle hydrangeas, which haven’t had any black spot at all, and I did not replace the soil before planting them. I hope this helps!

Hi Colleen — First of all, congrats on ridding yourself of a shrub that doesn’t make you happy! LOL Although I loved my mophead hydrangeas, they didn’t love me back and I felt such relief after removing them. I think you may have a panicle hydrangea called a Limelight, which is known for flopping badly after rainstorms. One of the reasons they flop is their stems haven’t developed into sturdy strong stems just yet. It takes several years for those stems to mature enough to keep the flowers upright. Having said that, those flowers get SO heavy when it rains. I have a 3-part video series on what happens to the flowers on my Limelight Hydrangea Tree after it rains and what you can do. And this advice can apply to Limelight Hydrangea shrubs as well. (You can find those videos also on my YouTube channel.) As for your neighbor’s similar-looking hydrangeas — she may have what I have myself: Little Lime Hydrangeas. They are smaller — getting 5 feet tall at maturity — but MUCH sturdier even with pruning them every year in early Spring. Check out my YouTube channel — go to the Hydrangeas playlist, and look at a few of my Limelight-related videos. I’ve got a Limelight Hydrangea Garden video that will show you what they look like in detail (from 2021) and two videos from this year (2022) that also will show you what these look like in detail: Mid-July Summer Garden Tour, and also Mid Summer Garden Tour (Front Yard). You can use the Chapter links in the description of each video to go directly to the Little Lime sections of those videos. I hope all of this helps!