Monday Mystery

I cannot believe this happened...

...all of a sudden. Really, it was like overnight! This climbing hydrangea has been in this spot for 25 years. It never bloomed until last year, but was always healthy and pretty.

You might recall that last year I had several blooms after those 25 years of nothing. Then this year, just this one tiny flower. But the foliage looked pretty healthy, so I just figured that the freeze killed all the blooms. Or, the plant fertilizing it has died. Last year I had 4 or 5 more planted along the pool fence. That's what it took to get it blooming. Now I fear it's gone. I've already alerted my garden girl because I want to replace it this fall. 

That leads to my next problem. I was so afraid that after our deep freeze in December, our "green giant arborvitae" would die. They didn't and I was so happy. But then...

...this. What the ****!? I looked on the internet to see what the problem could be. It's either too much water or too little water, it could be crown rot or root rot. I have no idea how you are supposed to figure it out. If it's too little water, then trying to let it dry out is bad. If it's too much water, then watering it would be bad. It's a mystery for sure. We have 4 others along the fence here and they seem to be perfectly fine. What to do??

It's all so baffling! I guess we'll just see what happens. I've really about had it with the yard and gardens. It's all so darn much work---and we have help!! Butch does just about all the watering of the pots. We have a sprinkler system for the beds. It's just too much.