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We moved into a new house in May. In the yard there are several large hydrangea bushes. I believe they are big leaf ones and they’re blue. They stems are long and wooden like. They booked around late June/early July and were beautiful. We did water them a few times a week with the hose but haven’t turned on our irrigation system. Unfortunately there was not much rain this summer at all and it’s been extremely hot. By late July they were all dead and looked pretty bad. They were shriveled up and brown. We left them alone a few new ones bloomed but after a few weeks my husband cut them back. I fear he cut them too much. They just look awful now.
I think they'll probably come back next year. They flower on old stems, so don't cut them back too aggressively. You may also want to get a soil treatment which will keep them blue. I think it's a soil acidifier, but cannot recall exactly. You can turn them either pink or blue just based on how you treat the soil.
They like a lot of water; the HYDRA part of their name refers to water. They also dislike intense afternoon sun.
OP, are you asking a gardening question, a psychology question, or a relationship question? It's not quite clear. He cut them back, because as you said yourself, they'd shriveled and were having a Near Death Experience.
I wouldn't assume he ruined the plants. You won't know until next year, however. But if there were a few blooms even after his trimming them, I would take that as a positive sign. Maybe you could both take a hydrangea workshop at a local nursery, to learn more about the care-and-feeding of your new beauties.
Obviously I’m asking a gardening question since it’s in reference to hydrangeas. I am worried he didn’t do it properly as neither of us are experts hence I inquired here.
We moved into a new house in May. In the yard there are several large hydrangea bushes. I believe they are big leaf ones and they’re blue. They stems are long and wooden like. They booked around late June/early July and were beautiful. We did water them a few times a week with the hose but haven’t turned on our irrigation system. Unfortunately there was not much rain this summer at all and it’s been extremely hot. By late July they were all dead and looked pretty bad. They were shriveled up and brown. We left them alone a few new ones bloomed but after a few weeks my husband cut them back. I fear he cut them too much. They just look awful now.
This post absolutely requires pictures of the hydrangeas as they are now. You have not made it clear what parts of the hydrangeas died and have been cut off, whether it was the flowers alone or if it was the branches and leaves of the plants as well. Please be more explicit about what was done to the plants.
If it was entire branches and leaves that turned brown and then got cut off then yes your husband has made a very big mistake by cutting those off at this time of year. However, if it was only the flowers that died and got cut off don't worry about it, new flowers will grow again next year. But next year turn on the irrigation system and make sure that all the plants get plenty of water even if it means doing some extra watering by hand, do not neglect them when the weather is so hot and dry.
You have stated "They booked around late June/early July" - what does "booked" mean?
If you haven't turned on your irrigation system yet you might want to consider doing that now before all the rest of the other plants in your garden die too.
So yes he cut down the branches. They were pretty long. So I am pretty worried and upset as to what will happen but it sounds like I won’t know for another year. Ugh.
I will say that the branches he cut were literally sticks growing out of the ground that had no blooms on them. I will try to show pictures. He did definitely cut off the dead blooms.
What do people normally do with shriveled up brown hydrangeas? I have to say the looked awful. Typically with dead flowers after a few days the dead blooms would fall off. When we moved into the house it was just a bunch of sticks growing from the ground but we knew they were hydrangea bushes and we did get beautiful hydrangeas. Just wish DH left them alone.
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.... read some of these and watch the videos. 
