Mistress Mary, quite contrary, How does your garden grow?

being a novice gardener at best, i'm learning all kinds of things about my garden. i've found growing vegetables the easiest--all they seem to require is water, sunshine and weeding. we'll see how they do this year. in North Carolina, our vegetables seemed to grow abundantly without much help. last year, i couldn't get myself to even think about the garden, but this year, i've been trying to get a handle on our backyard that's looking more and more like a jungle. so, the vegetables are growing and we've already enjoyed arugula. however, growing flowers is a completely different story. they require something more than the basic necessities. we have three hydrangea bushes in our backyard and they haven't bloomed once since we moved in. at first, i had no idea they were hydrangeas - the bushes looked so scraggly i cut them back, thinking it would help them grow. well, grow, yes, but no blooms. i hacked them back again this year early spring and i have a single hydrangea blooming. i managed to not cut one bloom!! you see, until now, i had wondered if what we had were really hydrangeas! at least now i know they really are hydrangeas. so i read up online and to my horror, i realized i'm not supposed to prune certain types of hydrangeas! i'll know better now and hopefully next year we'll finally be able to enjoy some beautiful hydrangea blooms in our garden. :)