Can you post a picture? Off hand I would say something either stepped on it or laid on it if the branches were just broken and not eaten.
Clare

Rabbits?

I can't say but something ate my Cilantro down to the soil.

Some creature tried to eat my daffodil bulbs at our mountain place. They dug them up and I guess decided they weren't that tasty so they left them sitting there. We thought it might be one of the porcupines. Here at home I've seen rabbits bite off a leaf or little stem but not eating it.

Sorry, can't do picture. I picked up the pieces and put a couple in water in hopes that they'll root (slim chance).

It's possible it was stepped on, but that seems odd since the plant was ringed with stones (partially to remind my DS not to weed-whack it) and also because the plant was broken into pieces and some of the leaves removed and lying on the ground. Weird.

It might just come back....It could easily come back with new growth at the ground level. Don't pull it up......

Things that i really really want to protect, shrub wise anyway, I put a tomato cage over, so nothing will step or lay on them. In the case of a small critter, you might try wrapping some chicken wire around the bottom of the cage too. I'm optimistic that the roots will live and send up new shoots in time.

Sue...an optimistic gardener

The roots are still intact, and that is the most important part of a plant. Put some kind of cage/protective barrier around this hydrangea and the other when you plant it. Also a little hot pepper spray won't hurt (get the hottest pepper you can--habanero, jalapeno--and cut it up in about a pint of water. Let that sit overnight, strain into a spray bottle) and protect your plant with a burn-your-mouth-if-you-bite-it spray on the leaves and stems. Won't hurt the plant, just anything that tries to nibble it!

I'd say rabbits. They do that to my lilies if I don't protect them with a fence. They'd be just ready to open blossoms, and they'd nip them off and leave them lay.
Leslie

Recently daughter Cheryl planted a nice blooming lily on her doggy's grave and the next morning she found it was drug into the woods, chomped up roots and all. She thought a raccoon might have done it. Who knows though.

Sue

Is it close enough for the weed eater to get it? Leave the plant in the ground, it may recover.

racoons are more likely to go after garbage, or decayed stuff..or cat food (IN or out of the house!) they quickly discovered my cat door...and waltzed in making a huge mess!needless to say that's closed every night!

do you have deer in the area?

Groundhogs are known to eat only a few inches of the stem and not touch the upper part and leaves. I haven't tested or had experience with hydrangia and groundhogs so I don't know if that is on thier diet. I do know that groundhogs love sweet pea vines and will decimate an entire row by eating only a small part of the vine that lies between 2 and 5 inches above ground level.

To protect new plantings from groundhogs and rabbits, surround the plant with a guard made of sheep or very heavy chicken wire. The grids should be no larger than 2 inch square and the wire heavy enough to push into the ground. Form the wire into a circular shape and tie with wire or bend over the ends of the cut ends. Trim the bottom to leave long open spikes that will be pushed into the ground.

If you find the guard pushed over and the plants nibbled even though it took some force to do so, suspect a deer.

A "two legged" animal (vandal) can also do damage, but their damage is usually non-specific and spread among a variety of unrelated plants, unless it is spite.

I've decided it was a rabbit. The cuts looked like the branches had been pruned! I Googled rabbits "clean cut" and learned that rabbits cut at a 45-degree angle. That's exactly what I've got here. We certainly have enough rabbits on the property (and deer and squirrels and chipmunks).

I'm mad at myself for not protecting the plant. This could have been avoided. I now have one of those triangular tomato cages over it, and I'll add some wire fencing soon.

Thanks for your help!