Oh, thank you so much GardenGal! This is my 3rd attempt to grow one of these and I do have the ideal outside space for it to go into eventually. However, I love the idea of leaving it in a pot for a while. Right now it is in a 1gal pot. Do you have a recommendation for the size to transplant it into? Also, would you stake it in the pot? I so appreciate your advice. I just love this beautiful hydrangea and so want this one to be successful...in spite of my carelessness.

Small, but not small enough :-) There is a form of Japanese climbing hydrangea, Schizophragma hydrangeiodes 'Platt Dwarf', that grows about half the size of a typical climbing hydrangea but it will still reach 20-30' feet in time. Tends not to be a very heavy bloomer also - I have yet to see one in bloom. Any other selection will rapidly overwhelm a 6' structure. Climbing hydrangeas are BIG vines and develop a very heavy woody trunk and stem structure once established. They require an equally sturdy and sufficiently large support structure as well. And they do not vine but attach themselves with rootlets along the stems - this type of climbing method does not lend itself to small trellises or smaller wooden supports. They need some expanse of surface - preferrably with some texture to it - for the rootlets to grip and adhere to. You could of course use your wooden structure as a small vertical 'lift' to give a hydrangea some emphasis, but with a support so small, your essentially growing the hydrangea more as a free-flowing shrub or groundcover, which many gardeners do. Just understand that its size will exceed your expectations - and the wooden structure - in time. And more rapidly than you'd expect. Also, pruning to maintain a smaller size will result in minimal flowering, if at all. Mature climbing hydrangea growing 50' up a Douglas fir:

hi there, i have 3 climbing hydrangeas, 2 are in their 3rd summer, and one is in it's second summer. the two older ones are on the south side of our (stucco)house, with one getting more sun and one getting a little afternoon shade. the one that gets a little more shade is taking off this year, almost 10-12 ft high. the other one is a little slower, i suspect that the additional sun and a little less water due to it's location might be why. still blooming and happy though, and filling in quite a bit from the bottom this year, but only at about 5 feet. the two year old north sider is also growing, at about 5-6 feet now. i think they are worth the wait, i've seen some big established ones around and they are beautiful. i also have a moonlight schizophragma planted next to the taller of the 3 yr old hydrangeas, and that is taking off, much higher than any of them, and is really beautiful. you may want to plant one of those too, for quicker gratification, and also to "extend" the bloom time, since they tend to bloom a couple of weeks after the hydrangea, and climbs in the same way. i think the combination is really nice too. good luck!

I'm not sure exactly what you were expecting but that hydrangea HAS bloomed - old flowerheads are readily apparent in the first and second photos. That it produced mostly fertile florets - tiny little flowers - is not at all uncommon with climbing hydrangeas and especially ones that have not yet fully matured. 8 years in the ground is only just the beginning of full establishment for H. petiolaris and folks often wait 5-10 years or more for this climber to flower reliably and consistently. Even then, you are not going to get full, dense flowerheads. Climbing hydrangeas produce lacecap type flowers or flattened corymbs of mostly fertile florets sparsely outlined with the larger, showier sterile florets. This is what the flowers will look like: If this is not what you want or expected, by all means move or remove. But your vine has bloomed and should continue to do so going forward.