It may be a Hydrangea. What is the geographical location?

Hydrangea was certainly my first thought.

Interesting... I agree the leaf did remind me of hydrangea, but the crown and stems do not seem like hydrangea. It doesn't look like any macrophylla's I've ever seen around here... definitely not a paniculata. Other possible species?

It was cut down too low, too soon. My hydrangea still has huge leaves even with frosts. Your plant is struggling to put out new leaves which look unhealthy. (Help me help me!)

People who work on landscape maintenance sometimes don't know anything about when to prune. We have a guy here who prunes forsythia into a meatball shape in autumn, which cuts off all of next spring's flowers.

I suppose if a macrophylla were pruned low every year, it might grow that dense. I'll have to take a close look at the stems. They appeared not as woody as a hydrangea, but I didn't inspect them that closely. Around here we don't prune mopheads at all, hoping for blooms, which are a crap-shoot, depending on the winter.

If it is a hydrangea, it definitely did not come from a nursery.... at least not a normal nursery around here. Strange size and habit for a nursery plant.

It looks like Hydrangea macrophylla to me, both stems and leaves.

With it being pruned so severely, I doubt there are buds left. I see only flat ends at the terminals.

Yes, a badly abused mophead Hydrangea imo also.

I agree that it looks like Hydrangea macrophylla. But have no idea why they selected that for a zone 5 garden!! Unless it has winter protection, it is never going to bloom. And considering the difficulty most have with getting the remontant or reblooming (new growth) types to actually produce flowers, even those are not very good choices for a colder zone without protection!!

It also looks like it is in full sun. Does it have inground irrigation?

ETA: macs can be cut back to the ground and they will regrow quite easily. You will just miss any flowers for a season, even if you were to provide winter protection.

My guess is that they were free for the taking and that was all the criteria involved. These condo folks shouldn't be making plant decisions. That's why there are professionals. Jeez.

No inground irrigation. Full sun. what a waste of effort. they will likely be wilting all the time. and ugly the rest of the time when defoliated. But no one will care - except me and a handful of others.

Oh well... I knew this would happen when I left my house/gardens behind. have to move on.....

THanks for all your inputs.

If you feel the stubble you will find the stems are definitely woody.