Well fiddlesticks! Another post lost due to GW/Houzz buggy code?

I will type it in again without adding a photo to begin with. I think you need to hold off on the insulating until it gets cold. Insulating now seems like it would keep the sap up and the leaves on. I'd wait until they drop and are ready for winter. Maybe have your cage in place to add leaves/burlap or whatever. The folks in your zone can offer better advice.

I don't have that problem in Atlanta. The problem we have are hot, dry summers. It's always going to be hot but a drought is every few years and we had it late this summer and it was brutal. Last year we had a lot of rain - almost 80 inches for the year and may have broken a record.

Gee whiz, what is wrong with GW and photos? I tried adding one photo a minute ago and nothing.

Yay, here is one more

Mulching well will help against frost heaves. But as long as the plants are full hardy for your zone - and they all should be - then nothing else needs to be done.

If you want early season flowers from the hydrangea, you might want to do the chicken wire with leaves protection (and well-packed leaves). Bigleaf hydrangea flower buds can be killed off with winter cold and without protection, your Endless Summer may not bloom at all.

The deciduous plants should be fine. It's the evergreens you need to worry about. They will need water during the winter. That's water, not ice. Next year, their roots will be deeper, and more able to fend for themselves. However, this year, they may need shade so they use less water when the ground is frozen. It isn't an immediate concern, since ground freeze isn't happening any time soon.

Thanks for the comments thus far.

Do I need to trim the Hydrangeas at all? Before this, we've only had Peonies and a Hibiscus that I would cut down late winter every year.

We tried to transplant some of the Peonies so any suggestion on when is best to cut these down?

As for the leaves, we only have a weeping willow that drops leaves early December, okay to mulch and bag these and then use to cover the hydrangeas?

Thanks again

Leave your Hydrangeas alone. They're shrubs, not herbaceous perennials like Paeonies. They don't need pruning now, or, in fact, at all, in their youth. You'll see next year if there's any winter damage to tidy up. This seems quite good guidance http://www.sargentsgardens.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/Plants.ENDLESSSUMMERHYDRANGEA.pdf

The willow leaves will be fine.