Sharon, mine gets sun all day, more than 10 hours. It's at the top of a SW facing slope with no nearby shade. I have more sun than shade, so haven't tried growing one in part shade. However, nicholsworth55 has posted photos of her H. paniculata in zone 6 midwest that grow in dappled shade with very little sun. They aren't Pinky Winky, but IME all of the various cultivars of H. paniculata seem to have similar requirements, so I think that PW would most likely be fine in 5 hours, but perhaps a bit less dense than a full sun plant. As far as pruning a tree form, you will need to remove any sprouts along the "trunk". It's easiest to just rub them off when the buds are just starting to swell along the "trunk", but if they get bigger, just prune them off with sharp clippers. If needed to shape the plant, you can shorten the branches in early spring, but once the leaves start growing, don't prune any more or you may be removing flower buds. As I said above, I don't prune any of my panicle hydrangeas since they have enough space, and they still bloom profusely, so it isn't necessary to prune them if you are happy with the shape and size.

No fencing, Kitasei, but there's so much else for the deer to eat in the surrounding fields and woodlands that they don't generally bother things. I've only had deer issues a couple of times in the last 20 years, but even if they were an issue, I couldn't possibly fence all my gardens without breaking the bank since I live on a farm. I do have quite a number of strong-scented/flavored plants around the edges, and we allow hunting, so our deer tend to avoid areas where we tend to be often. My only real critter issue is voles, though some years we have to get rid of woodchucks in the veggie garden. At my inlaws' I've used a combo of strong scented soap with a webbing of high-test clear fishing line around a hedge that the deer were eating in winter. The blue flowers are Clematis 'Little Bas', but there are several other clematis that I grow into my two big H. paniculatas, just not blooming in the photos. I like growing into various stiff-branched shrubs some of the looser growing clematis that have long internodes and so won't create too much shade, and I use type 3 hard prune so I can cut them down each winter. There are a lot of them that suit this use well, but I really like the combo in the photo enough so that when the voles ate Little Bas I replaced it, but in a buried wire basket to protect it.

You can put them in bright shade too but paniculatas will do best in some sunlight. I have a Little Lime that is a compact version of Limelight and, in its current bright shade location, it sometimes stays lime colored thru the whole season and does not turn white. Some years it has turned lime to white to green-pink but usually it stays lime and turns green-pink. Actually, it turns out, I prefer that but, man, it was an unexpected development out of the left field, as they say. Over here with my long growing season, paniculatas may get 2 ft quite easily in their first year as they grow fast and grow all thru the Fall for me. You could put the pots in holes in the ground that you dug up and then cover the sides with mulch. Have fun trying things. That is how we all learn! Ha! Luis

I agree--my VS blooms earlier than PW does. My VS also is more floriferous than PW is--though that may be because VS gets more sun. I just adore the paniculatas. Kate