They do take a few years to establish and bloom.

mine took three years to bloom. and boy did they bloom beautifully. i was so sad and ready to rip them out, but i'm glad i persevered. the blooms were spectacular!

Some hydrangeas bloom on last year's wood, some on this year's. Did you prune it? If you know what the variety is, you can look up the type.

What kind of hydrangea is it? How big is it? Do you prune?

H. quercifolia and H. macrophylla bloom on last year's wood like Miss Rumphius Rules wrote. You cannot prune these in spring. If you prune them at all, it would be right after bloom. I don't prune H. macrophylla at all except the obviously dead and old blooms the next spring. I say obviously because some wood doesn't bud out but is still green inside so I leave it be for now. You might choose pruning over bloom some years on the Oakleaf or perhaps a percentage of branches as they can get bigger.

Hydrangea paniculata also known as grandiflora or a pee gee type, can be pruned in the spring as they bloom later in the season on new wood.
Also H.arborescens, with Annabelle being the common cultivar here, blooms on new wood and can be pruned in spring.
H. quercifolia, H. arborescens and H. paniculata are all white hydrangeas. H. macrophylla can be white.
Another reason for H. macrophylla and H. quercifolia not to bloom is winter damage with terminal buds dying, along with the next season's flowers. H. macrophylla is worse for this but is can happen to a small oakleaf too. If you check out the hydrangea forum, you can read a lot on this subject. There is the newer cultivar "Endless Summer" that blooms on new wood too but that one is blue, so not yours.
As far as time, I waited four years for a few of my H. macs to bloom and it was worth the wait. Some have never bloomed and always die to the ground but even those are starting to have a stick or two live through the winter. Still no terminal buds.

Thanks to all of you.
Loretta, I don't know anything about Hydrangeas. This is my first one. It is a climibing variety - White flowers.

hema

Well that is the one I skipped figuring it probably wasn't one of those. That would be Hydrangea anomala petiolaris and that could take years. They are slow to establish. I had mine for 5 years and I don't think it is even close to blooming. Check out this thread

Here is a link that might be useful: Climbing hydrangea won't bloom

I moved a few hydrangeas this year that were in the ground for about 18 months. Does that mean I start all over waiting for them to establish themselves before they bloom?

Thanks for the link Loretta.
I guess I just have to wait...
:-(

You all will probably not wait as long as me because I started with a little cutting first of all and then I had it in a very unfavorable spot under a bush for a couple of years til I dug the bed. (Things take a lot longer to get to when you have babies).
As far as starting all over, I am going to guess no for this reason - but I really don't know. 18 months isn't a long time for the roots to really establish and spread out. When you moved them, was it easy to dig the plant up and get all the roots? If the answer is yes and you didn't notice any wilting, or dieback, the plant probably took it like a pro.

YES!