Gets a little confusing as to whether the old snowballs are Hydrangeas or Viburnum Opulus . Consensus is Viburnum...

Prune after flowering is finished. Real old plants get woody at the base with few flowers down low. You can prune out one in five of the main stems at the base, starting with what looks to be the oldest. Neglected plants can be renovated by cutting all stems to near the ground. That's a little drastic for a plant that does well despite being over-grown so maybe a better solution would be to remove one or two of the older stems every year for a few years until the whole thing rejuvenates itself.

I can't find any info on any benefit to a light cutting back - taking out whole stems seems to be the pruning method for this shrub. You might post your question on the Shrubs Forum in the event someone has experience.

We're on the Shrubs Forum! Duh. I take my last sentence back.

MB, I'm glad you posted over here and hope you get lots of good answers such as the above. After seeing your post on the Heirloom forum, I did some reading about the snowball bush in my library. While common names are a thing of danger--!--the snowball name has most often been applied to Viburnum opulus for centuries.

It is a very old garden plant, first in Europe and then in America. It is one of those relatively few shrubs grown only for its beauty, with no useful purpose, such as food or medicine. There are many, many references to it in old garden books and herbals. It's great that you are preserving this old plant at your old house.

Thanks all...first ...I checked the "stems" of the bush and they really are more like tree trunks.They are about 2 inches around at least.There are some new green stems growing that had a few flowers on them...do I leave these ones alone?They are kinda aiming to fill in the one side that is pretty empty.All the flowers are now brown so I think now is the time to do anything right?The roots of this bush are out into the grass pretty far, but I have been making sure that it gets at least two gallons of water unless it rains.I have'nt put any other stuff on the bush...should I and if so ...what?I dont have much experience gardening....this is our first house (and the last until the kids move out!)I never had a garden before or trees and shrubs so I am completely in the dark on these issues.The house was empty for about fifty years until we bought it so the bush had no help at all.I really love this bush and people actually stop to look at it,so I want to "fix" it if I can.Thanks for any help!