I rescued one from my grandmother's house. it was old and not looking so good so she wanted it out! M grandfather planted it for her when he built the house 30 years ago! Anyway, I took it home and dug a large hole for it ad planted it.It looked aweful, close to death. I dug the poor thing up again and dug a larger, deeper hole and filled it with 4 bags of humus. I made sure all the dead canes were pulled and watered day and night. I se osmocote to fertilize. It's been 3 years...itbloomed this year on the anniversary of my grandfather's death..he's with me:0))) Here is a link that might be useful: hydrangea pic

do not up the water.. without checking the soil ... how new is this tree???? your note indicates that it was a big investment.. so may i presume it is newer .. this year???? any sizable transplant will take a few years to regrow enough roots to support the tree ... so browned leaves are not uncommon .. with a tree.. i would err toward 'proper' water ... as compared to trying to drown it .... the only way to know if you are watering properly ... is to water it.. and then dig a SMALL hole with a hand shovel.. and see just how far down the water is actually getting... i would prefer one good deep soak a month .. to something like a sprinkler for 15 minutes a day ... you have to insure that water is getting down to the root level ... as to the holes in the leaves ... lol .. i would trim the tree up high enough that you don't see them ... lol .... i surely would not use chemicals on leaves that stay attached to the tree for the whole season .. they are still doing their work feeding the tree.. holes or not ... bugs come.. bugs go.. good years.. bad years ... but unless they are de-nuding the tree completely .. i just don't see where chemicals will get you anything positive.. in fact.. spraying of chemicals at the time the leaves are unfurling can burn the baby leaves.. and you will be further behind than if you left it alone ... on the other hand .. if its been in place for 5 years.. i might change my mind.. lol ken

There's a good chance instead of butterfly, you had a sawfly larvae infestation. They can strip the foliage in very little time and since the same color as the leaf and very small, can go unnoticed until too late. My neighbor and I have both lost foliage so quickly (almost overnight) she was blaming deer - it was sawfly larvae. http://www.ppdl.purdue.edu/ppdl/weeklypics/weekly_picture5-6-02-1.html

Something that helps me is to have a backbone of plants that get aphids but are not adversely affected by them. That way you have a constant "backlog" of predatory bugs ready to pounce when other things get infected. In my yard this is the attractive ever-blooming FL native firebush shrub which hosts a lot of lacewings and ladybugs, I have never seen the specific aphid species that likes it move to my veggies but this might be chance. Also I have tons and tons of predatory and parasitic wasps that are brought in by my many pollinator-friendly flowers. Flowers good for this in FL are: Lantana (VERY easy to root via cuttings, I do it without hormone in about a week) Porterweed (do not grow in South FL if u do not have native species) Butterfly bush (fragrant and easy. I prefer large old-fashioned ones like Black Knight and White Profusion because they choke out weeds/fend for themselves) Blanketflower Zinnia (cheap and easy to grow from seed, you probably are familiar with them. My favorite is the heirloom 'Envy'.) Gaura (long-lived perennial native to Southern USA. interesting flower shapes) Pentas (tolerates more shade than others on this list, available basically everywhere in FL for a reason) All of those have very long bloom times (porterweed and lantana are ever blooming if there's no frost). Winter cassia, Chaste tree, Purple coneflower, Flatwoods plum are also great but their bloom times aren't quite as long. You might also want to experiment with "sacrificial plants". I've only had lubbers once but they only ate my sweet potato vine (grows like a weed so I don't care) and my zinnias, perhaps they prefer them over the others? Might be worth testing. But that's just me/my view. I don't like spraying and also I don't have the time to spray, I work and go to college. I'll let the bugs eat each other instead LOL Other than that raised beds definitely helped when I grew tomatoes. Peppers in my experience are basically pest-free, they're just heavy feeders is all. Also they perform best in protected/partial sun for me. Epsom salt is good against slugs if those become a problem after heavy rain. It's literally magnesium so it doesn't hurt plants and personally my FL soil is deficient in the mineral so plants appreciate it. My last tip: don't bother growing squash. Hope that helps and best of luck