Dovefromabove, everyone: mine has continued to get worse. The foliage has grown nicely bushy and is standing strongly but the top-most leaves are all like in the picture below. I'm wondering if I'm not going to be able to do the right thing with it to improve whatever this problem is. Everything else in the same bed is growing really well and only the hydrangea has leaves like this. Not sure what I should attempt next or just leave it to see how flowering goes. Other than this eaten away sort of damage to the leaves the plant overall looks remarkably healthy and strong. I wonder if I ought to be spraying it with something.