Question
This will be my third summer in Lincoln NE.  We have three hyrangea bushes that were planted by the previous owner. I have never had a bloom.  I now know that I have been pruning them in the late fall. This year I left them alone.  My question is now that it is spring what do I do with the old dead stems from last summer. I don't want to bother any new growth but the old stalks will look bad if I don't get rid of them.

Answer
This is too risky to do right now.  In a few weeks, when this shrub is covered with leaves, it will look less disheveled than now.

Some species produce flower buds in mid-to-late Summer.  The flower these buds go dormant in the Winter, then Spring they slowly emerge.  The buds are situated along branches from the prior year.  Technically, the term for this growth habit is 'blooming on Old Wood'.  Hydrangea macrophylla is one of them.

You are not the first person who lopped off all the flowers for an entire year -- more than once.  Stay away from the pruning shears for the Summer, unless you notice a few branches that you find unbearably hideous to watch for that long.  Prune branches through the Summer as the large, heady blooms wane.  Keep me posted.

L.I.G.