I was so disappointed my hydrangeas did not bloom last year.We had such a mild winter. It was a shock to me as these plants were propagated from my grandmothers 40 year old plants and they had bloomed the year before at her house. I live about 15 minutes away from her and never thought I would have total winter die back. Our new home is on a hill and we get very strong unprotected winds in the spring for about 2 weeks. In mid march, the plants were leafing in and a few nights dropped to the low 30's and all the stems died in all the hydrangeas. They grew back from the base but since they bloom on new growth, I had no blooms last summer. This year, I have new leaves out on old growth already. I chose 2 Hydrangeas to try to protect. I had some moving blankets from our last move. I wrapped the stems loosely to make them more upright. I took 4 foot rebar and placed them in the ground around the hydrangeas for support above the plant. I took a 50 watt low voltage landscape light and placed it in the center of the plant. I took two blankets per plant and placed them over the plant. I secured the blankets with a few stones at the base. I added a remote thermometer inside one of the blankets to see if my experiment would work. I also placed a thermometer outside the plant. I remove the blankets on warm days and rainy days. So far it has worked. We had temps of 21 and underneath the blanket the temp was 33. My other hydrangeas have already died back to the ground. The reason I am doing this is for sentimental reasons. These hydrangeas remind me of growing up. It has been a pain to have to check the temps every night to make sure I cover them up in freezing temps. Even if it works, I do not think I will do it next year. I think I will pot them up and overwinter them in my greenhouse. Sorry for the long book version. I love hydrangeas and can not think of my southern garden without them so I may just have to pot up my propagated plants and replace my outdoor hydrangeas with ones that bloom on new wood. Then I would not have to worry about them dying back.

Too early to know what their fate may be. Perhaps it's just cold damage to the unfurling buds. (That's what's wrong with my hydrangeas.) If so, buds lower on the stem will sprout later on. Wait and see.

You can make all kinds of combinations between pruning and transplanting (moving). Each will have its advantages and disadvantages. For example, prune them all hard every so many years (this will last for a while, "x" years before you need to do it again); prune them to give them a haircut every year (you need to prune every year); transplant all (or some) to move them all a few feet away from the walking area (not all in one year of course; maybe take several years if you cannot do them all in one growing season); replace them all/some with smaller hydrangeas (move the big ones elsewhere or give them away to neighbors/relatives/garden clubs for their fall sales). You couold even engage landscape companies (more expen$ive). I think if you can post pictures, some people here might be able to help. But give them time though since many people go out of town at the end of the summer.

Thank you @charles kidder I have a lot of dappled shade all over my property. I appreciate the recommendations and will look for that variety on my next garden center trip to try. So far my new collection includes, some ruby slippers, a Pee wee oak leaf, a climbing hydrangea, an unknown variety of oak leaf I got as a gift from a nice neighbor, Bloom struck and the Bobos I originally bought for the pine tree project. Hopefully I will learn to be a hydrangea gardener without too many casualties.