Hi! This is the most amazing forum and I’m so excited to have stumbled upon it. I’m a hobby gardener and I’ve recently lost my garden idol (my mother in law) and I am lost without her (in all things but especially gardening).

We planted 18 blue hydrangeas to border our porch, each about 3’ apart from center to center, knowing at some point some may need to be pulled for space. They get full strong morning Sun and from mid day on are shade. They’re on drip so no overhead watering unless we actually get rain (which isn’t often at the beach here in Los Angeles).

I guess I’m just looking for general care and maintenance help/education. Spring and summer they did well, fall not so much. The leaves all turned yellow and spotted, which I suspect was chlorosis. We pruned them back and I started treating them with liquid iron and they are the deepest green and so pretty. How often should I be doing this?

Also my flowers seem to be shriveling and browning before they reach mature blooms. Any reason for this or ideas how to prevent that from happening?

Attaching photos. I appreciate all your wisdom and if anyone has other rabbit holes for me to go down please suggest those as well. I feel like I’ve spent hours and hours researching hydrangeas with not getting much out my searches.