DON'T DIG IT UP! What zone are you in?? Bad winters will sometimes kill them to the ground but will grow back in one season. Also don't prune just yet either. Hydrangeas are late to emerge and dead looking sticks often come back to life. Your area of the country and your zone is very important to answer your questions better.

Let's think about this reasonably :-) If it has leaves emerging up and down the stems as you say, why would you think it is dead? Hydrangeas are (for the most part) deciduous shrubs and normally lose all their foliage each winter. They do tend to look somewhat dead when only a collection of bare sticks in the middle of winter, as do most other deciduous shrubs, but the evidence of new growth in spring with emerging buds and leaves is an indication of them coming back to 'life' for the season.

You can trim off any old, dead flowerheads to tidy up the plant - just clip off below the old flowers, just above the next set of buds or leaves you see. Otherwise, the plants sound fine to me. Any other care necessary is going to be dictated by where you are located and the type of hydrangeas they are.

What you are describing sounds like normal hydrangea behavior. The leaves all fall off in the fall and then, depending on the type and how bad your winter was, you will get growth on the stems and new growth from the crown (the base).

If you are in the north east it is still too early to trim them back. I wait until the leaves on the stems are about 1-2" and then I trim above the highest green leaf on each stem. Any stem with no greenery get trimmed out. Does that make sense?

You can clean up any dead leaves on the ground and clip off any dead flowers from last year now. I would also add a few inches of compost around the base of each plant, extended at least 18" out. You will just have to see what happens this year and then adjust next year accordingly.

You all are the best! Thank you soooo much :)I know I might have sounded ridiculous but I am clueless. I am in California, the bay area.