What do you do with hydrangeas when the blooms begin to fade?

At some point, do you cut them back for the winter or leave them alone? We live in the midwest and normally I cut back roses in late Nov. or early Dec.

What do you do with hydrangeas when the blooms begin to fade?
A lot of people in harsh climates just leave the dry blooms on as added winter protection. The theory is that the tips of the plants are at the most risk for winter damage, so if the tips are just going to be discarded anyway, there's really nothing lost. In most cases, next year's buds are already developing just below the level of this year's flower heads, so you don't want to prune back very far in any case. If it's not really unsightly (and I think the spent blooms look pretty cool in many cases) I would leave the faded blooms through the winter and do some gentle pruning come spring.
Reply:Remove the spent flowers down to the first set of healthy leaves.Some hydrangeas bloom on growth produced the year before,so if you prune them too hard you may lose blossoms for next year.Hydrangeas make excellent fresh cut or dried flowers.
Reply:I wish I could help, but I live in the southeast, and we don't have to do anything to most of our garden except wait til spring and it all comes back. Our winters are very mild, and our hydrangea's just sit the winter out in their corner of my front yard!
Reply:We have several hydrangeas and we leave the blooms on until after the worse of the winter is over before removing them so that they protect new shoots from frost damage. If your fortunate enough not have that problem where you are dead head as you would do for more hardier shrubs and plants.
Reply:Hello there.......... leave them for they protect the next year's forming buds from frost and snow in the Winter. I live in the UK but I guess that would be the same almost anywhere in the world. You could, if you wished, trim them off back to the next pair of leaves behind the dead flower head, further back if you want to prune the shrub. If you do trim back further, you will not get flowers next year on that branch. Something to be aware of........I have in the past pruned mine back really hard without any hardship. Just did not have any flowers for one year. .chrissie G