In message , Bob Hobden
writes

"Stewart Robert Hinsley" wrote after Brian
wrote in reply to
"Bob who wrote
"Bri" wrote
I am a novice gardener and inherited the garden I have now when I
bought
the house. I have several hydrangea bushes that are getting to big.
A
couple of years ago I cut one of them back virtually to the ground but
it
has come back even bigger. I like the hydrangea and don't want to dig
it
up and destroy it but how can I reduce the size?

I prune mine hard every year.
Doesn't harm the flowering and keeps the plant compact.

I would have thought that this was a reference to H.macrophylla. To
prune hard, totally denies flowers for the next year~~surely?.

One of the pruning recommendations for H. macrophylla is to cut out (at
ground level) the older third to half of the stems.

I leave the plants till spring, to guard against any frost damage, and then
prune out very old wood and the other stems back to a large bud.
No problem with flowering that I've noticed.

Yep. I should have mentioned the "wait to spring" bit.
--
Stewart Robert Hinsley