Sassafras

i love to see the leaves change colour
clearing up leaves is not so good tho ~ never stops here!!

I know exactly what you mean! It's almost impossible to get leaves raked here before they're buried in snow and then it's a huge mess come spring time.

We have about 12 large oaks (not ours) surrounding the garden, they never seem to stop dropping something!

It seems like most of the trees growing around here are oaks so I have the same problem. I like using their leaves for mulch because they help acidify the soil. I always mow them down and pile them around my hydrangeas to help them over-winter better.

I've only just learned about the mowing trick, otherwise the leaves take too long to rot down. Hydrangeas don't seem to do well but I can't work out why.

What is wrong with them? Not flowering well or is it something with the foliage? I have more hydrangeas than any other plant in my yard so I think I've seen a little bit of everything that can go wrong with them haha.

Very few flowers and quite straggly growth, they don't look particularly happy!

That's too bad, I've had that a few times with my oakleaf hydrangeas and my Hydrangea paniculatas. What kind of hydrangea is it?

hmm sorry dont know ~ would be regarded as very common here ~ not oak leaf
they look like the one at the top of this page:
http://www.hydrangeashydrangeas.com/

If you have it in at least half-day sun, it may need some fertilizer. You could also try pruning it after it flowers or in late spring-early summer. Sometimes that's all they need if they're flopping over.

i have tried pruning them but it didnt work; however for the first time this year i have put manure [bought from GC] around all the plants ~ im already beginning to see some of the improvements so perhaps it will work for the hydrangeas ~ OH would particularly like them to grow. we dont even have half a day sun in the winter months ~ do they need a lot of water???

My hydrangeas need quite a bit of water but we have high summer temps, long periods without rain, sandy soil and quite a bit of wind. Another thing to consider is root competition from other plants, especially shade trees and conifers. Growing anything nearby can be difficult because of the water they take up. They don't really need sun in the winter time, just during the active growing season. Holly-tone fertilizer works excellent on my hydrangeas, have you tried anything like that?

no i havent tried that, i shall have a look ~ mine are certainly suffering from the competition!!!