I hate to be the bearer of bad news but yes, if you pruned GE in Spring, you cut off the flower buds that grew last August-October time period that would have bloomed now. Based on that, your GE will skip bloomage this year.

Normally, you do not need to prune hydrangeas unless their size exceeds what you want in a given spot or unless you want to revitalize the plant. When you find that you do need to prune GE, (1) only prune hard a few weeks after blooming or (2) feel free to do some light pruning anytime (as long as you realize you will not get flowers from those stems).

Regarding revitalization: After five years, a third of the oldest stems are pruned all the way to the ground. The next year, the second third is pruned. And on the third year, the rest of the oldest stems is pruned.

Keep the plant well watered now. Bud formation should begin next month. No more fertilizers are needed for the rest of the year. If you are not sure about whether you need to water, stick a finger into the surrounding soil to a depth of two inches; water if it is dry and cut back on watering if it feels wet.

Next year, you can feed the plant some manure or cottonseed meal in June. Some forms of Miracle Gro are 30% nitrogen (NPK 30-10-10) which is way too much nitrogen for these plants. For more information, see the link below.

Luis

Here is a link that might be useful: Fertilizing and Winter Protection

Your problem is two fold....1st problem as Luis stated above, improper pruning.
2nd problem...Even if you hadn't pruned, you probably would not have seen blooms on Glowing Embers as it is not bloom hardy in zone 5 without good winter protection. If you really want to keep it, you might also want to look up Hayseedman's overwintering thread, but be warned, growing macs in zone 5 (other than Endless Summer or some of the other new varieties that bloom on new wood) is work. Sorry to be the bearer of even more bad news.....yg

Or you could grow it in containers and overwinter it in the garage?

hmmm... this is all actually making sense now.

The reason I pruned it back was because all the stems (branches?) looked dead early this spring, and the only new growth I saw was new leaves coming up from the base. The branches looked dead because they were dead!

Anyways, someone gave it to me and I really didn't know much about it at the time, but I've learned lots since then!

I can say that I look forward to:

(1) taking better care of it this winter and hopefully enjoying some beautiful blooms next year. (It had blooms on it when I received it, so I think it will again.)

and

(2) researching Hydrangeas that will be better suited to my location!

I'm new to Hydrangeas but I'm sold!!! : )

Thanks!

Jim

Hi, Jim
I'm also from West Michigan. I have several Glowing Embers that a landscaper put in my yard six years ago. I had never grown hydrangeas at that point. Found out later he was pushing the zone. One has died. On the four that are left, I got a total of one bloom last summer. This year, one is all budded. The other three...zip. I keep threatening to pull them out and replace with something reasonable.
The ones that do really well for me are...Endless Summer, All Summer Beauty, and if you like white ones Annabelle and Limelight. FWIW. I refuse to do more than blow yard leaves on them in the fall. If they're too wimpy to survive I'd rather find out early. I leave them covered with leaves until May 1 and I don't cut anything off until June 1. Karen