Question
I have a nice hydrangea growing in my yard. I planted it last year  I think there were 3 in the pot at the time. Not much from them last year but they came up really nice this year and I saw big mopheads that were nice pink and light purple and loved them. I gave them holly tone as I really wanted the dark nikko blue color  but theat didn't happen, i did pull the mulch back and spread the holly tone watered and replaced the mulch. Still 2 weeks later nothing and now the beautiful blooms ahave started to shrink up a bit and are now a faded green yellow browish color? what did I do or can they be saved. Also the leaves are healthly green color but are sprouting up faster than the blooms and are quite tall is this normal? On the other side I have hydrangeas as well One single plant from last year that has come back really nice and is pink, and another one I planted with 2 plants in the pot next to it to try to make it as full as the opposite side where the blooms are fading.The problem on this side is that the mopheads(are smaller than the other side except the one that came up from last year) and they seem to be hidden under the leaves instead of blooming up and out over the leaves? What can I do?

ANY HELP IS VERY GREATLY APPRECIATED!!!

Answer
Fertilizer with too much nitrogen in it encourages vegetative growth at the expense of blooms.  Hollytone should be balanced but since it does not appear to be doing the job, you could try a fertilizer with high P-K numbers (for example 10-20-20 or even 0-10-10).  Triple phosphate is another option.  It is too late for this year, though.

Not all hydrangeas will change flower color with increased acidity.  Those that do require (depending on soil pH) way more acid than Hollytone provides.  I have found  that in my clay soils I have to apply liberal amounts of aluminum sulfate (at least four times as much as I thought would be necessary) in addition to acid fertilizer to get the flowers to turn blue.  The change does not occur overnight, either; you may have to wait through a month of gradual change to see if you applied enough.