Got inspired by you and the temperature to go give the ornamental hedges a haircut.
Everything else seems to be OK. Almost all the 50+ azaleas bloomed, crape myrtles in bloom now, boxwood OK, the big cherry tree bloomed at the beginning and what I thought was a big dogwood I told you about is a tulip magnolia the arborist said and it bloomed very nicely before it got leaves. Didn’t know a variety of magnolia lost its leaves in the winter.
All the hydrangea except the few grew up from the ground. I don’t know dick about them so I went and broke the dead wood out, seemed a lot easier than getting my pruners in there and not cutting the new growth. (that was probably wrong right?) Should I go back and hit the dead wood with the pruners and if so when? The colors that did bloom are white, pink and green!
Southern magnolias are usually evergreen/ fragrant 'saucer' or Magnolia grandiflora - while northern magnolias are deciduous - Magnolia spp - and not very fragrant. It's a large family (genus) of some 200+ plants, with more being hybridized each year. Whites, pinks, red, yellows, light greens and multi-colors.
There are 2 southern magnoias which are hardy up to Harrisburg: Bracken's Brown Beauty, and Jane, but they usually sustain damage in severe winters. I grew both in the fields.
If the dead hydrangea stalks break off easily at the rootball, that's fine; just so none of the root system is damaged by yanking them out. Clean cuts are always better.
If you can see enough to prune out the rest of the dead wood now, that's good. If the foliage obscures your view, and you might nip off a finger, wait until the leaves drop in the fall. Use your fingernail to scratch the bark along the stem: green underneath is good, don't cut; brown is bad, remove it down to 1".
I always cut deadwood back 1-2" at a time until I hit green, and then stop.
On vertical stems/trunks, always make the cut on a 45°, so any rainwater runs off and doesn't lay on the cut/soak into the vertical wood, and rot out the stem or trunk.