Hydrangeas can be very vigorous. I cannot tell what type of hydrangeas you have but for example, paniculatas would come back with a roar. If the ones that you have include macrophyllas (mopheads, lacecaps), serratas or oakleaf hydrangeas, I would not count on getting any flowers this year as they tend to bloom on old wood. If you have macrophyllas, I hope have rebloomers as those might bloom in the Summer.

What were your pretty bushes? I see what looks like azalea, a dwarf holly and nandina. The picture of the ruthless gardener caught in the before act of actually pruning the shrubs instead of taking a hedge trimmer to them looks to me like he did a fine job of cutting the meatball bushes you had in half. You can't expect long sheered shrubs to have any foliage on the inside.

If those are azalea and holly, yes they will grow back, this year.

Most hydrangea are too large for this space without completely blocking the window and will not take to being cut in half when you submit that request again.

I'm wondering why you'd want hydrangeas covering the windows. Seems like a place for shorter shrubs or a medium/tall groundcover. At any rate, the cut plants should be coming back in a few weeks, not months.

If you are sure you want to replace these with hydrangeas, you could have a grouping of hydrangea paniculata Bobo which only gets 3 ft high. And fill in empty spaces around them with reddish pink begonias.

I would give them a couple of months. Most shrubs will grow back well from hard pruning given a bit of time because the mature root mass is still there below ground supporting new growth. They may grow back to a nicer form as well. Did you like what was ther to begin with?

if it were mine, I would give it the time since new plantings often don’t grow a lot for the first year because they are getting settled and growing roots, so a new planting won’t necessarily put you far ahead and will require more watering.

If you decide to replace the plants, whether hydrangeas suit the site will depend on the kind of hydrangeas and how much sun is available as well as where you are in the world.

Our gardener

==>>> really???? .. it a rather loose use of the term ... some of the worst pruning i have ever seen.. if it could even be called pruning ...

if the are crepe myrtles around town.. we might know who is murdering them ...

ken

the "gardener" would no longer have a job if I was in your situation..doing their own thing instead of following instructions wouldn't work for me..

"The "gardener" would no longer have a job ... doing their own thing instead of following instructions wouldn't work for me." That could possibly be his day of jubilance, depending on who knows the most. :-)

Yardvaark..shouldn't any changes in the work be discussed with the homeowner?..I had the impression the result was different than what was expected..

@nicholsworth Z6 Indianapolis

Perhaps you can explain, draw, photograph, post a video, show something that details the proper procedure and result for cutting a meatball of a shrub in half that the "gardener" was egregiously ignorant of.

Christopher C Nc..you're not getting my point..the OP was "pretty sick over it"..she "wanted them to be cut down to about half the size but he REALLY pruned them"..the gardener didn't do what the homeowner wanted (right or wrong)..that's all..I don't care for meatball shrubs..we don't have any..on our wooded lot we only prune dead, damaged or diseased..