It had beautiful flowers before I moved it 3 years ago; I am of the assumption that my pruning timing was off, resulting in no flowers. At least that's what I am hoping.

We actually had a mild winter in the North East this year.

If I prune mine around mid July, I get no blooms. Being in the NE, you can probably prune later but, as you learned, do not prune "too late". However, you cut experiment and see what happens...

I think I'll take gardengal48 (PNW Z8/9)'s advice and carefully cut back the obvious dead branches. I only cut, for now, the obvious ones and cut the others later.

There are a lot of reasons this type of hydrangea doesn't flower. The most common being winter killing the buds off (they set buds of flowering on previous seasons growth), they also have to get the right amount of sun. Too much or too little will cause issues.

Ok This may be a stupid question but; when can I expect to see some flowers, if it does indeed flower this year

late June, early July.

It’s hard to tell, but maybe this isn’t a good spot for it. It looks crammed in tight in this space, right up against a wall and a sidewalk.

As far as the spot; last year, pictured in late July, it was full and vibrant and perfectly shaped but no flowers. If the placement was an issue would I have had such a nice looking, sans flowers, bush?

In the picture, stems from the previous year (also called 'old wood') appear to have produced blooms while stems that developed on the current year (also called 'new wood') did not bloom.

That suggests that the shrub is not a rebloomer mophead and that it would benefit from winter protecting (putting a cage around it and covering it with mulch).

Some of mine have this behavior when temperatures are warm for a while & drop low enough, A mild year is good to have but the problem your/my shrubs can have is that the temperatures can be warm for long periods of time and then suddenly they crash. The warm temps do not keep the shrub very dormant and the drop damages the stems or dehydrates them.

January is a month that does that a lot over here (it was warm before Jan and then got hit with lows in the teens this year and last year). I therefore add winter protection when a sudden drop into the mid to the 20s is announced after a long "warm" spell in winter. To help with dehydration, I also water deeply the night before the drop in temperatures.

Tara,

Like others have said, there's usually two reasons they don't bloom:

1) You live in a climate zone that might be too cold for it. It's the late winter/early spring temp swings that damages the buds. You might need to consider winter protecting the shrub. Chicken wire cage, wooden stakes and fill with leaves/hay. Protect it right before your first frost and then remove after your frost season has ended. I live in zone 6 in Mass and if they aren't winter protected, they won't bloom. Will mostly be a foliage plant like in your picture.

2) You pruned at the wrong time. Because the risk of damaging next years blooms is pretty high with this type of shrub, most people recommend not pruning Macrophyllas at all.

My recommendation is to winter protect it this fall and don't prune it. See what happens next season.

Last fall I did cover the base of the plant with leaves; but not the chicken wire and stakes. I will try that next year.

Yea you have to completely cover the shrub with leaves. Basically stick a couple of wooden stakes around the shrub, get some chicken wire and zip tie the chicken wire to the stakes and fill with leaves.

Visual example:

https://cdn7.bigcommerce.com/s-jmzfi5zcr2/product_images/uploaded_images/hydrangea-in-the-winter-illustration-compressor.jpg

I live near central Massachusetts with cold winters. Last few years my hydrangea bushes seemed very healthy but hardly any blooms. So late last fall I tied my hydranges up tight with twine and filled the center with leaves and mulch. I bought reusable fabric shrub protection bags online, they come in many sizes, they have a draw string on the bottom. The cheapest were about 2 for $10 but I can use them foreve. I am buying more this year for my azaleas and rhodes to keep the deer from eating the buds And leaves. Bags protect the new growth/merging flower buds on hydrangeas from temp fluctuations and frost bite. I removed the bags about May 1st. I have a lot of growth on old and new wood on Endless Summer and Lacecaps.. A few days later I pruned high above new growth where the wood was still green inside. Gently removed twine and leaves. Hoping I finally get blooms this year. My bushes are about 4 years old.

Mulch seems to protect them better than leaves when I have used it. The leaves probably leave a lot of "air" space. I have gotten more broccoli heads that way in Spring so, nowadays, I am buying the mulch (for winter protection) in the Fall, apply it as needed and when needed and, once I remove it in Spring, I use the mulch everywhere else in the garden.

I’m also a fan of hay. I’m a believer that it has less air inside the cage so it insulates the plant better from temperature swings. just A royal mess to clean up.

Theres this small mom and pop home improvement store I drive by when I go to work that sells hay bales. I might stop in this fall and see what they charge cause Home Depot/Lowe’s is stupid expensive For hay