Sorry to hear that, cmeister419. I think he owes you at least a Starbucks Cafe Latte, no? Or something else? ;o) Thank God that this issue normally will not kill hydrangeas!

Clarification... You did not say where you are; you wrote that 'all new wood from the previous season was chopped' instead of 'all old wood from the previous season was chopped'.

Scenario 1: I assume that your last sentence meant that all the stems that ES had from last year were chopped by your husband this year and that you are now getting new growth.

Based on that assumption, the flower buds that developed in the Fall (approx time frame) got cut and will not produce blooms in the early Spring time frame that they usually do for you. ES reblooms so it can produce late flower buds that produce late blooms as well but only from the mature new growth.

So there is a chance that the new growth may result in flower buds and bloomage. This requires that the new growth get old enough to produce flower buds that open/bloom in the Summer/Fall time frames. It also requires that the Fall conditions that trigger dormancy do not interfere with the new growth's flower buds blooming process. You did not say where you are but some people with short growing seasons (think in cold zones) complain about not get this 2nd set of blooms at times.

So, think about how ES has done in your garden reblooming-wise. If your ES hedge normally "reblooms" for you then you have a good chance to get new flower buds and blooms later on this year.

Scenario 2: If you meant to say that ES produced new growth this year, your husband then cut the old and the new stems this year and ES is now producing even more new growth theeen your chances of bloomage are less.

Think how ES has done in your garden (reblooming-wise) before. If it typically has produced late blooms then -MAYBE- it may produce very delayed flower buds this year. To get flower buds from a second set of new growth, the stems just have to get mature enough before winter/dormancy time arrives. Because this is the 2nd set of new growth, bud production will occur later than normal so, chances of bloomage may go down.

You have a better chance of getting blooms in warm locations with their long growing seasons. Again, to get blooms under this scenario, the stems have to get mature enough to produce flower buds, wait for the buds to open and then bloom. If your growing season is long enough then these delayed flower buds might open and produce bloomage in mid or late Fall.... The other thing to also consider is your winter season's start and the reduced sunlight and photosynthesis. If your weather during the 2018 Fall is cold enough to trigger dormancy, the "delayed" flower bud production for this year may run into cold spells and weather conditions that could prevent bloomage. You will not know for sure until Fall arrives.

Gosh, sorry this mess happened. I basically had something similar happen years ago... I told a friend that she could come and cut the blooms for arrangements. But she waited long enough that I plum forgot. I thhought she had decided not to get any blooms and felt safe I would get bloomage the next year (those hydrangeas only bloomed on old wood). Then I came back home one day and the blooms were gone. It was mid-July and my hydrangeas in TX develop old wood flower buds in early July. I ended with just two blooms on the following year. That is when added hydrangeas that bloom on new wood only. Sigh...

Hope you get soooome bloomage. Say, why don't you have your husband plant you a new hydrangea shrub elsewhere in the garden!!!

Luis

As Luis noted, hard pruning of a hydrangea is unlikely to kill the plant, although it can eliminate or delay flowering that first bloom season after the pruning. How likely that is to happen depends on where you are located and how the plant behaves for you. Here, bigleaf hydrangeas do not start flowering until late June and will continue on well into fall, so a remontant form like ES will almost always reliably produce flowers from the new growth later in the season regardless of pruning. But this is not a uniform response in all locations :-))

And you will have to be patient for your hedge to regain its size.....but it will!! Just keep your hubby and his pruners away from it in the future :-)

My mother in law has similar sized hydrangeas that she actually intentionally chops to the ground every year hoping to keep them from taking over the entire breezeway between the house and garage. Hydrangea's can grow very fast, and there is a balance between roots and green growth: since your husband only chopped the canes and not the roots, the plant might re-grow faster than you expect. The roots encourage green growth, while green growth encourages root growth. My guess is you didn't lose much time as far as the plants size, but, as others mentioned, you probably won't get the early summer flowers.

Hi everyone, thanks so much.

Sorry for the confusion - I am in Zone 6 and he cut back in early fall so he cut off last season’s growth (old wood). New growth for this season is just starting and has been untouched. I know he didn’t kill the plants, but I am so disappointed as she starts blooming in late May for me. I guess I will have to wait. And yes, my husband definitely owes me something!