Unfortunately earlier this year I saw that the leaves on my hydrangeas were stuck together - and inside was the larvae of a caterpillar that feeds on the leaves and the flower buds. Because I was so busy with my mom and kids at the time, I didn't take pictures, instead I just went ahead and opened the leaves that had been bound together and killed the larvae without taking any photos. These caterpillars basically destroy the flower bud and so you end up with less buds and less flowers on your hydrangeas. I ended up snipping off maybe 3 bound leaf pods per plant and carefully pulling apart another 3-5 per plant. It doesn't take very long but it is annoying when you walk away and realize you forgot to check the whole side of the plant!
But as you can see, we're at the point where I need to deadhead the blooms so that's on my chore list for this week. Apparently in some varieties deadheading can encourage more growth and blooms. Since I received these as a gift, and not purchased, I will definitely experiment on 2 out of the 3. I'll deadhead and see what happens.
The blooms on these are HUGE this year and last year I babied all three hydrangea plants so they would come back. I had low expectations since we had transplanted in the middle of summer and not in the cooler spring or fall temperatures where I would be able to control the elements a little bit more. BUT I'm so happy they came back, even with a little larvae - but now I know what to look for and I will be on top of the leaves that are bound together. The bound leaves are easy to spot (they literally look like bound leaves and it looks like they're making a home for a pest, which they are!). You can either snip off the leaves if you can't get it open being gentle OR you can pry apart the leaves very gently and dispose of the larvae inside the bound leaves.
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