Question
I think my hydrangea is a mophead.  I've been researching for answers on line and found pictures..my blooms are pink,blue,green.  We believe its been here since the house.  Which would make it 35 years old.  I love this hydrangea..its beautiful.  My mother in law told me to cut it back year before last and so I did ..the following year it didn't bloom near as much...so two years later I didn't prune it at all...and it bloomed.  I dried 5 huge vases of beautiful blooms.  Guess that was about the third year since I pruned it last.  So I decided to prune it again...well this spring and summer I have few blooms.  Now what is the problem, all the green leaf which stayed on is now very dead drooping...the stems are about five feet tall and what use to be green leafs they look really dead.  My question, is it dead or dying?  What should I do?  We have a digital camera and I could send pictures if needed.  I need help...don't want to prune it back..cause all this summer didn't have many blooms.

Answer
Pam,
It is probably an Oakleaf Hydrangea.It sounds like it anyway.If the blooms are elongated instead of round and the blooms go through the color changes you mentioned.DO NOT prune the old wood. In other words,you can cut off the blooms as much as you want,but do not bother the branches at all. The blooms will come from the OLD wood,meaning they will bud out from those old branches.Do not fret though,I have done the same thing.The rule of thumb with Hydrangeas is...don't do anything at all.LOL! Great news huh?