Pee Gee blooms on new wood so it should be developing invisible flower buds now. These buds will bloom in a few months (say in late May or June). For obvious reasons then, do not prune it. If you prune after these flower buds have developed near the end of the stems, you will be cutting off this year's blooms. If Pee Gee needs any pruning, do it after it has bloomed. fyi - if planted in a location where it can attain its size at maturity without disturbing anything/anyone, you should not need to prune it often.

I do not know what happened last year but, if you pruned it last year between Spring and June, you cut off the blooms. Lack of water, late frosts and deer can also get affect the flower buds.

Thanks for the tips! I appreciate the feed back!!!!

Hailey99 said her hydrangea is planted "in the shady north side of the house". Could the combination of her northern growing zone (5b) and the lack of sunshine affect/lessen the amount of blooms?

Just curious,
Deb

Not much. You need to plant the hydrangea in heavy/dense shade in order for the plant to bloom little. I have several hydrangeas on the north side of the house too and they do fine. Three are mopheads and the other one is an arborescens. The arborescens is in complete shade but it is in "bright shade" so it still produces blooms.

Ah yes Louis, I see! I so appreciate your taking time to answer questions and help everyone. As always, excellent advise on trimming and pruning. You answered Haily99's question in her original post, it just got me thinking and, with that, I became more curious.

I posed the question about shade to give Hailey99, along with us all, a little more to think about. What got me off topic was her description of the planting location and zone. This made me wonder if her shade situation was a little too heavy/dense and possibly caused Hailey99's hydrangea to bloom so little. Which leads me to another question... *squeak squeak* (can you hear the hamster running on the wheel?)

Would it benefit her to add more (N) phosphorus (in organic form?) to help increase future buds/blooming? Or, without testing the soil, would that be overkill and possibly cause Hailey99 more trouble?

Thanks to all for valuable advice! I've learned a lot from all the contributors.
:-)
Deb

Hello, Deb. A soil test should really be the first thing to do when planning to add specific amounts of minerals because the test will confirm if said minerals are needed. There are even some kits sold out there which will give you general results by changing the color of a solution where you mix a pill, water and some soil. I would do a formal soil test every 5 years or more and use the kit when the kit when I want to test often.

Glad you made me mention that because there is a corner of my yard where I was testing the soil because another plant was not blooming much. Phosphorus levels were fine but nitrogen was low. I need to retest now after amending the soil last year. Ironically though, the problem with that plant was due to lack of sunlight. It turns out that a vine is growing nearby and the vine just about covers the plant by summer. I need to prune that area now.