It would be critical to determine the soil pH if you want blue flowers, John. Call some of the nearby plant nurseries and ask if they carry soil pH kits and test the soil. Other neighbors in your area might already know this so ask them too. Some choices amongst H. macrophyllas: Hornli, Pia and the Cityline Series. Mini Penny might but it gets a little wider than what you want (you could prune to keep it in bounds).

If your soil is alkaline, you could amend the soil to make it more acidic and thereby get some blues but you would have to amend regularly to maintain the acidity levels (if you stop amending, the soil will eventually go back to alkaline).

Luis

John, another view - I don't think I like that site for hydrangea. Most are as wide as tall and I suspect you would have a problem with the constant pruning trying to keep it withing your described width without sacrificing flowers regularly. Then, there is the matter of your afternoon sun, I think you would have short-lived blooms with that exposure and likely crispy edges at least to your foliage.

If it must be blue, I wonder if one of the blue flowered perennials might fit your space better, possibly something spiky, upright - understanding you would have no framework for winter interest. Another possibility might be one of the patio height clematis on a tripod or short obelisk - there is a compact collection by Evison in the last couple of years that is interesting, like blue C. Parisienne but some of the older blues would work too.

Thanks to both of you. I posted this on the shrubs forum also and they seem to agree this may not be the best place for a hydrangea.

We both still want a hydrangea in the garden. We will now be placing a hydrangea on the east side of the house that would be sunlight morning until 1 pm or so. We are open to anything but we really like bluebird, endless summer, and limelight. H. paniculata was mentioned in the topic in the shrub forum as being able to take more sun. Any suggestions here? We like hardy low maintenance but whatever we plant will be mulched ~2-3" and will have a soaker hose in the bed. It will basically be a new bed so I can fit other stuff in there, too if there are any good looking companion plants to go with the hydrangea suggestions :)

I am going to get a soil ph test this week and will report back.

Thanks,
John

Those three will get at least large, Bluebird about 3' by 3', ES 5-6' and Limelight being 8' or more. I assume you have no size constraints on the new east bed? If you do, consider Little Lime, a smaller version of Limelight which would be a smaller choice. However, because of your location in the South and because of your long growing season, these most likely will attain a size larger than the smallest estimates. Meaning, if you see size estimates such as 3-4' tall, expect the shrub to get 4' when it reaches its size at maturity (10 years). That should help allocate the bed space appropriately.

I would consider companion plants on tall shrubs like Limelight, which some people have reported gets leggy (for them) at the bottom. On others, I would compare the height and width of all the shrubs to see if they would work "for me". Some examples of companion plants... small boxwood, other evergreens, caryopteris, daylilies, heuchera and others seem to work fine. But other times, I also keep things simple and do not plant shrubs too close to the hydrangeas.