hydrangea

This year my hydrangea never bloomed properly. The flowers were, for lack of a better description, stubby. The flowers never seemed to form completely and only a few of the individual buds opened in each large flower. Hope this makes sense! Any thoughts on why? How to prevent?

Is this the first year this hydrangea has bloomed for you? If so, it's possible that you have a lacecap cultivar. They have small fertile flowers in the center with a ring of larger sterile florets around the outside so they have a different appearance than the mopheads. If your hydrangea is a mophead and has bloomed for you before and this is the first year it hasn't bloomed properly for you, I don't what the problem might be.