Yes, the old wood will sprout. As with other hedges you need to prune the top to be narrow than the bottom for lower branches to get enough light for vigorous sprouting and a solid surface to result. For better sprouting use staged renovation, where you cut back individual branches hard here and there, over a period of perhaps several years, rather than doing the whole thing all at once.

Ken - thanks for the link. I wish the GW search had a date filter. I searched before I cut the first time, and when I searched again last week, seemed to be getting only the same (old) results. Maybe Zooba and I should have a "stumps to green" contest. :-) Zooba's at least have a certain architectural quality mine lack. I'll see what mine look like come next spring and replace if I need to replace.

Ditto all the comments about pugging your fruit trees. All of mine have been topped to about 3 to 4 feet. I am growing them in an intensive planting system, which Dave Wilson promotes (no doubt to sell more trees, but it works for me, since I want small trees, small individual crops, lots of varieties). Here's a link to Dave Wilson Nursery's info about how to plant and prune fruit trees. It really works well for those of us with limited space, but would like to have maybe more than one peach, plum, nectarine or apricot tree. I have about 20 trees lining a walkway that leads down to the lower part of my yard. It's my little "Walk and Pick" orchard. All my trees will be kept at 8' and below, so I can just reach up and pick my fruit without using a ladder. And, if you look closely at your bare root fruit tree, you'll probably see it may already have been pugged or topped :-) Dave Wilson also has a great YouTube channel as well: http://www.davewilson.com/video/video_Index.html Patty S. Here is a link that might be useful: Dave Wilson Nursery: How to Plant a Fruit Tree

It's a cottony maple scale, indeed, and for the last 2-3 years we have a severe infestation here in New England. Due to their life cycle they are very hard to get rid of completely. As far as I know (from my own experience) only Safari (Dinotefuran) if applied twice a year (at the right time) AND for two years on a row could give you complete freedom from the beast. Re: as far as hydrangeas concerns. If you cut them to the ground now then by the next year you'll have a nice healthy rejuvenated shrubs. P.S. Every leaf and branch from infected plants must be burned, not composted.