I'm not a hydrangea expert by any stretch, but it's my novice understanding that hydrangeas start to form next years flower buds in the fall, so cutting back in late winter you'd have cut off the buds.

If they were recently planted, the plants may be concentrating on building a root system in your garden. But as this early leaf out confuses them at times, especially when new, I am not surprised it is not blooming on schedule. I suspect the early leaf out killed the buds if both ES and the oakleafs have not bloomed by now. The ES plants is now trying to get some stems grown and may wait to bloom until the stems are more mature and until temperatures go down at the end of the Summer months.

I once had the same problem but in the Fall. Temperatures stayed in the 70s and 80s thru December one year and then they plumetted below frezzing for almost a week. Killed the buds but not the plants. Had a total of 2 blooms that year. Sigh!

Luis

Are the current stems useless if buds died? Would I get new buds if I cut these budless stems to next set of leaves?

Are the current stems useless if buds died? Would I get new buds if I cut these budless stems to next set of leaves?

Sorry, looks like my computer was post happy.

Do NOT prune out old growth in winter or early spring; you CANNOT declare it dead until about the first week of June, at which point there *should* be at least *a little to some* new growth FROM the old, at which point you would cut any remaining bare brown stems BACK to where there is new growth FROM them.

Surviving old growth will not only add more flowers but will add structural support to the shrub and help it achieve greater size.

Endless Summer should not be much of a problem, especially after a few years. The majority of the Forever & Ever varieties "NEED" old growth to produce flowers reliably. For example, my Summer Lace produced tons of flowers on old wood after harsh spring freezes, but nothing from new growth. F&E original: one flower on 2 plants. Yes they *can* flower somewhat better than *some* older varieties, but a lot of the hype is just that.

Great advise everyone. At this point is there any way to prune to get any flowers this year?

ES's website and that of other rebloomers suggests deadheading existing flowers to trigger more bloomage. But if the weather conditions are not appealing to the plant (say, it is very hot or dry), the shrub may delay blooms until the problem moderates in the Fall.