The west side will be way too much sun. Mine get morning sun and they still wilt after three years. I think they do best on the north side of a structure.

Trees would give them a lot of water competition. Hydrangeas need water (hydra...)

Lisa

oh, okay. thanks. i just transplanted them on the north side with trees just to the north of them, but i tried to plant them away from the tree as much as possible. so it is water that completes with them, and the trees. tired so hope i am making sense. i will water a lot.

They do need a bit of sun, a couple hours in the morning. I have one that has been on the north side of the house for over 20 years and in all that time never had more than 2-3 blooms a year. Then the ice storm took out the tree to the east of it and it had over a dozen last spring. The one on the east side of the house has always bloomed fairly well and it is not too far from a tree.

Mine is planted on the North side against the house, and has been there before I moved into this house. I've been here 13 years, so it was there before then.

First of all, what species of Hydrangea do you have? The most common Hydrangeas grown are the Hydrangea macrophylla var. macrophylla cultivars, commonly called mopheads for its big round flower clusters, big leaf, and Hortensia. If so, these do need a shady to partly shady location, consume lots of water (hence, the name "hydra"). It's little sister is Hydrangea macrophylla var. normalis, which are the Lacecaps, and require basically the same care and maintenance. I have a 'Nikko Blue', which is one of the earliest introductions, and color of blooms is dependent on soil acidity.

Also frequently grown are H. quercifolia and cultivars, aka as Oakleaf Hydrangea (I also grow this one), H. paniculata, H. arborescens (e.g., Snow Ball), H. serrata aka Mountain Hydrangea, and H. anomala ssp. petiolaris or Climbing Hydrangea.

The most common cause of lack of bloom in Hydrangeas is improper pruning. I know - been there, done that. Blooms are set on old wood, or last year's growth. Hydrangeas should be pruned in summer after bloom, to shape or remove dead wood, or not at all. Pruning any other time (fall, winter, spring, will remove the blooms set for that year).

Late frost or early frost before the shrub has gone dormant can also result in loss of bloom. I haven't had that problem with mine and I believe it's because it is a foundation plant - the house keeps it warm enough that it has never suffered damage from late frost or early frost. Too much shade is also another culprit in low bloom production.

So, really timing of pruning and location of plant for protection are essential to a successful Hydrangea shrub.

I've attached an article from the US National Arboretum that discusses much of what I've already added above, but which is much more extensive.

Susan

Here is a link that might be useful: Hydrangeas

Hi - I'm certainly no expert, and I've killed about a half dozen hydrangeas through the last 10 years, but here is what worked for me to finally grow a beautiful hydrangea in Northwest OKC.

I planted an Endless Summer variety (one of the first ones, the regular blue kind) right next to the outdoor faucet on the north side of our house. This area gets pretty full sun from about noon to early evening in the summer. All the other sites I'd tried were partial shade, dappled sun under trees, or thick shade under trees, which probably did give them a rest from the intense sun we have here but were just too far from water to keep up with. Hydrangeas need A LOT of water in our summer, so by having it right by the faucet it gets a little drink everytime I water something else. We have an auto-hose rewinder with a discharge line, and I used landscape pins to anchor that right to the root zone of the hydrangea, too. In the hottest part of the summer (95+) this gets watered about every day or every other day just through using the faucet, and still when I get home from work the hydrangea may have leaves totally wilted back onto the limbs so I give it a big drink. In the early years, I may have even watered it morning and night. The folks at TLC told me three times a day may not be too much for this thirsty plant!

This type of hydrangea doesn't need cutting back (it blooms on new and old wood) so there's no worry about figuring out when to trim it. After it leafs out, if there are any totally dead branches I pull them out, or I may just leave them alone because the thick leaves pretty much cover them. Ours began with just a bloom or three the first year, a handful more the second year, and the third year it was full of blooms. It's probably five or six years now, and hasn't gotten real big (maybe only three feet tall and wide) but this one is a smaller variety so it's about full grown. I don't mess with amendments to alter the color of the blooms, and I have a gorgeous tri-colored blooming plant, with some pink, some blue and some nearly purple flowers. The blooms are smaller than the type of hydrangea flowers you get at a florist, so I have thought about cutting side blooms off to force more growth to a main bloom on each stem, but I can't bring myself to do it. I do occasionally trim blooms and float them in bowls or put them in bud vases and bring them in the house. They last a long time as a cut flower.

For all the work, it might be my favorite plant. Am even thinking about putting another one with it, and after I have a new hydrant installed at the other end of the house, putting a few more there.

Soooo, to wrap up a very long post, I would advise pick an easy variety, and make it very easy on yourself to water it so you can do it with minimal effort, because you will be spending a lot of time watering!

Mia

In WV EVERYONE had hydrangeas...LOTS of them. So much so that when we had WV inlaws visit they inquired where ours were and tried to buy us some at Lowes. LOL!

I bought seven for a VERY shady foundation planting on the south side of my house (Tall junipers 20 feet away). I have no idea how they will do as I planted them last fall. At least after reading this I know why so many people in WV had them...it rains there ALL THE TIME. Like 3 or 4 days per week. Here, I guess I will need to water!

Jo

Jo, they are very popular along the East Coast, especially from Virginia northward. When I lived in Massachusetts, nearly everyone had them in their landscape, and there were a lot of them on Cape Cod, too. I recall a road trip we made to P-Town at the tip of the Cape, and stopping at one of the small, quaint breakfast places to have tea and scones. It was one of those typical NE clapboard buildings dotted with Hydrangeas around the foundation, the ocean just a short walk away. We had such a great time there. It's as common to see Hydrangeas in the NE as it is to see Crepe Myrtles in the South.

I call my Hydrangea the "blowsy old broad" because she's been here for a very long time, and her blooms are so big and heavy in the summer that the weight of them causes them to droop and I sometimes have to stake them. Kind of like me in my old age.....lol!

Susan

If i had been smart and not ordered more roses i could have planted many hydrangeas on the east side of the house off the porch. They may have liked it there. Fact is, we have a long narrow piece of property 50 x 600 or so. i am not sure. there are trees on the other side of the fence on the south side and on the other side of the fence on the north side. the 600 feet go east and west. so the shade of the trees on the south side shade almost to the north side. the trees on the north side shade part of the plants on our property, but we can cut the trees along our fence on the north side.

I am not sure what kind of hydrangeas I have. I did find another one trying to come up, and I am hoping that it is the oak leaf one that i had given to me, but I can't be sure. Basically I have the common ones that they sell in the stores at supermarkets. I only had two blooms last year, and where I had to move it I am not sure if it is better, but I will ask to have some branches cut if it can't get sun, after all I also planted my new dawn roses on that north side of the fence because there is no better place.

I am thinking that we need to cut down the hackberry trees that are on the fence line, after all they break in ice storms.

Everything I love, I mean really love, doesn't grow well here: apricots, almonds, lemon verbena, geraniums, and who knows what else. I love lavender and others here grow it well, but mine all die because they get too wet.

I also don't know how pioneers made it. I grow veggies one year and get a good crop, the next year nothing. i get fruit on my trees and they rot. I feel for those pioneers, no matter where they tried to live, because it wasn't easy.

The one thing that Lavender needs that I have problems with most often is sharp drainage, drainage, drainage. In that respect they like a gritty, alkaline soil. I added some gypsum to the soil for mine, and I planted it in a location at the top of a slope in my yard, so that water ran down and away from the roots. I barely watered mine once established at all. They pretty much survive on neglect and are better off if you completely ignore it.

The best Lavender variety I ever grew was Lavender x intermedia 'Provence'. Finding the right variety is tricky sometimes.

I am not what you would call a good Lavender grower, but there is a lady here on the forums, that is. Maybe she'll pop in here with some advice.

We had apricot trees when we lived in Norman. Some years they produced well, and other years they didn't. I think it was because they were often bitten by frost after the buds developed, which is often the case in Oklahoma. Our fluctuation spring temps are the culprit.

I've grown Lemon Verbena here, but it is an annual in Oklahoma. I grew it in a raised planter bed. I think it, like most herbs, did best in a raised bed situation, with good drainage.

Are you talking about the true Geraniums, or Pelargoniums? There are a few True Geraniums that are supposed to do well in Oklahoma summers, but generally, I view them as Northern or cooler climate perennials. One of the more heat tolerant varieties is 'Rozanne'. I tried growing 'Johnson's Blue' around the early 2000's when it was extremely popular, and it just melted in my garden even though planted in partial shade. I think I would plant them in part shade where they get some morning sun, but are protected from the afternoon or West sun.

If you're talking Pelargoniums, they are grown commonly grown here as annuals, though they can be overwintered in a garage, or indoors, I'm told. You see them everywhere, especially in big box stores here.

Susan

I was happy to see this thread. I bought some nikko blue and some peegee hydrangea and I was going to put them under some trees that border a fence. But now I think I will put them on the north side of my house.

Good info!!