Hydrangea is a shrub - which is a woody plant that generally has many branches. So you are most likely seeing one plant (although certainly some people group several together).

If you get a 3 gallon sized hydrangea from the store (in good health), I think you can expect to have about 8-10 flowers at least. Then each year it will get bigger and have more. Unless the deer come along and eat the tips!

Thanks! I have 8 on the way, and was also wondering how many I can put in a given sized pot/urn. This helps tremendously :) No deer (or other plant-munching critters) around here, thank goodness.

There are a few dwarf hydrangeas, and others that will grow larger...it sounds as though you are planning to grow in pots? What type of sun/shade does the area you wish to grow these in have? One suggestion from a botanist whose advice I often follow is if doing pot culture to plant a one-gallon sized hydrangea directly into a 15-25 gal container (filled with a bark based soilless growing medium) where it should be fine for approximately 3 years before the soilless mix should be replaced. That's one hydrangea in a large container, I think esh was probably referring to grouping them in the ground.

Before we offer more advice, it would help us to know which hydrangeas you ordered, and roughly where you live to know your gardening zone - advice to a Z9 gardener wouldn't be precisely the same as suggestions to someone living where winters are more severe.

Hi morz8! You're right that I am planning on going with the potted route -- I was thinking that makes sense until I know where they like to be and can put them in a permanent place in the ground.

I'm in Houston, which seems to be described as either 8b or 9a, depending on which map you're looking at. Our house has all sorts of sun levels, but I was planning on putting them in the front yard, which is north facing and has a shade tree in the northeast corner, so it'd be mottled/filtered sunlight through the morning and into afternoon, and then 2/3 of the front yard gets late afternoon/early evening sun for probably 3 hours this time of year.

I got masja purples -- they aren't here yet, but once they arrive I'll know better about how large they are. A single 1-gallon plant into a 15 gallon container sounds pretty big! I've got a 4' tall 4-trunk pygmy date palm in one that size!

The amount of sun your yard is getting sounds good, you'll want to protect from direct hot mid-day sun in Houston.

Hydrangea macrophylla Masja is considered compact and will normally grow to 3-4' high x 3-4' wide. It will likely stay on the smaller end of its average size in containers, become a little larger in the ground.

OK, the masjas arrived yesterday. I knew they were not being shipped bare root, just not how large a "container" they were in. The look a little beat up from the USPS delivery, but are not in too bad a shape. The containers are seedling pots, so until I figure out where/how to pot them for good, they are each going in their own little 6" pot, where they can recuperate from the journey.

Got some potting questions, but I will post them elsewhere :)

Here is a link that might be useful: Photo of the Masjas

When and how do u prune the hydrangea- ours is huge and taking over the area-not a good yr as not many flowers--very hot humid and then hot and dry-- then too much rain--been crazy for MA near the coast.