We cannot tell you how much water your tree/shrub needs in your situation, without being there. It depends on how well your soil drains, how moist your soil is, how much it rains, what the weather's like, and countless other factors. You can tell how much water your tree/shrub needs fairly easily. At planting, you should thoroughly wet the soil (surrounding and in the rootball), down to at least the level of the bottom of the rootball. Then, read section 12 in the link below. Here is a link that might be useful: See section 12

I have a 3-year old in a container that is blooming for the first time this year and depending on when yours started leafing out, it could be that the leaves are still growing and would get larger as the summer progresses. The weather this year has been odd so a number of plants (like my clematis) were affected by it and things have tended to go through cycles of rapid growth and then stalling and then more rapid growth, etc., as the temperatures have fluctuated. Also for younger plants like ours, it's often recommended to really prune back alot of the twiggy new growth to just a few larger stronger stems and that might help with leaf and flower size as the shrub won't have to concentrate on so many side shoots.

Hello, mainegard3. Hydrangeas take one or two years to become established. The exact time when your plant should bloom can be determined by looking at other PeeGees close to where you live. But the timing of blooms on your first year will be unpredictable because of the way shrubs are grown by wholesalers. Do not be surprised if they are late or early by a month or more. I would not use any fertilizer on this shrub since hydrangeas need so little. Maybe one fertilizer application or two per year. But on your first year, do not even bother fertilizing since the potting mix probably already contains those round fertilizer pellets that nurseries add. The appropriate fertilizer applications for new hydrangeas is about 1/2 to 1 cup of compost, composted manure or cottonseed meal. You can also use a general-purpose slow-release chemical fertilizer; follow the label directions. In the northern half of the country, apply the fertilizer once in June. In the South, apply fertilizer in late April or May; then again in June-July. That is it. Weak fertilizers can also be added during the growing season but stop around July/August to make sure that the plant goes dormant early enough so early frosts will not zap new growth. Weak fertilizers are things like liquid seaweed, liquid fish and coffee grounds. Lawn fertilizers should be kept away from most shrubs because it contains so much nitrogen that it can make them grow nice green leaves at the expense of no blooms. It could be another reason why you have no blooms yet. Luis

There was another clever post by someone who put up a short wire fence under hers before it bloomed and it held them up really well.