hydrangea flowers, and pruning

[hortgirl]

Hi
Hydrangea blooms on 2nd year growth, so perhaps it being burnt back, sabatoged you. Hopefully it will bloom this year on last years unpruned growth. Reasons that plants do not bloom are typically as follows

not enough sun
not enough water while forming buds
too little nutriton or too much nitrogen fertilizer (watch lawn fert)
pruning spring bloomers back hard in the fall

hope this provides some insight, good luck

Pruning of hydrangeas is simple once you get the feel for it. In the most basic of description, leave growth through winter to afford the plant some protection. Buds at ends of branches are most likely to be lost, leaving good ones for spring. The simple down a third and out a third works quite well. Remove crossing, broken , diseased growth, and old growth you have it covered. You want to prune your plant down no further than leaving two sets of fat healthy buds. You will notice eventually you will end up with old growth that has flowered and developed multiple stems,( this is the growth to remove(out a third) last years growth( your flowers), and new unpruned growth from current year. The new growth will not bloom. The oldest growth can be removed starting when it is three or more years old. I tend to remove four year old stems.