It is dormant when it loses its leaves :-)

Depending on what kind of hydrangea it is, it may not be flowering because of winter cold damaging the flower buds. The other common reason for this problem is pruning improperly.

If you can let us know what kind of hydrangea it is or describe how it looks when in flower (when it did), we can be more specific about care. The kind of hydrangea also has a strong bearing on how much afternoon sun it can tolerate.

Does your plant show signs of having too much sun? Are the leaves damaged or burned, browned, is it wilting in the middle of the day or afternoons?

Too much sun wouldn't affect flowering other than it could cause blossoms that did exist to fade more quickly.

You're in a Z5. I wonder if your hydrangea is bud hardy for your climate, at 2x2' in its third year I would guess one of the big leaf, macrophylla types that bloom on 'old wood', or stems from the previous year. Do you know the name, or type? If you don't know, what color were the flowers when it did bloom - could help us to identify it.

Expecting blooming from hydrangea macrophylla every season in your climate would most likely require winter protection measures, flower buds could easily be killed by your winter temps or lost to a Spring freeze after the plant has began to awaken from dormancy.

Other reasons would be wrong pruning, or over fertilizing which can lead to more foliage, growth at expense of flowers.

And, garden gal types faster than I do :) She also is less wordy, more efficient in her suggestions.

I lost the tag but it had big blue blossoms when I bought it and the nursery said to buy this fertilizer to put on it. I'll admit I neglected to put the fertilizer on the 2nd season. It is healthy, has green leaves (some have a red tinge so not sure why, maybe it is normal?). I never pruned it. Maybe I should cover it over the winter? I included a picture. Lots of weeds around it right now I haven't been able to pull b/c of the heat.

OK - that's a bigleaf hydrangea, Hydrangea macrophylla. And with the exception of some hardier, reblooming varieties, these will need protection in winter. I even recommend protecting the rebloomers to get any kind of decent bloom season. If you check the archives of this forum on 'winter protection', you should find threads that discuss various methods.

Other than not blooming, that plant looks pretty healthy to me! The ruddiness may be due to sun but it is not excessive nor particularly harmful. If you were looking at limp, wilted leaves that were bleached out and/or had obvious scorch symptoms, then I'd suggest more shade - less sun. But that doesn't look bad at all.

Thanks Gardengal! I'll check the winter protection to see what I need to do over the winter months. I didn't think it wasn't healthy; just couldn't understand it not blooming. Glad I don't have to dig it up! :)

This year my oak leaf host as r not really blooming also. I spreader composted manure and organic fertilizer at beginning of spring. Maybe I overdid it.