What is this plant? And what's wrong with it?

[LivingoffCoffee]

Just moved house and it has a lovely mature garden, which all seems to be doing really well. Expect this one bush. Its got tons of buds on it, but nothing's blooming. And a lot of the buds are either covered in ants or have strange dried things sticking off them.

Can anyone help?

i don't think they're buds, they're nuts (?fruit?) - the flowers have been and gone and are the crispy brown bits you see.

what flowers/nuts i couldn't tell you tbh - i first thought hazel but the leaves look wrong.

I think it might be a hibiscus.

It's a hibiscus

Agree with CrazyCat and wise
up- the leaves look like Hibiscus, and those look like Hibiscus fruits. Hibiscus flower a lot earlier in the year. Even if it isn't Hibiscus, those are still fruits, not flower buds. The point at the end is the remainder of the stigma - female sexual part of the flower.

I don't think there's anything wrong with it, it's looking pretty healthy. Presence of ant may mean it has a few aphids/greenfly but nothing to worry about,

Those are a few aphids, it looks like. And generally, in small numbers, they won't harm your hibiscus/rose o' Sharon (which I think this is). The leaves are nice and healthy and the bush and buds show no sign of disease. I have a rose of Sharon in my garden and it's a gorgeous bush. Nice and low maintenance.

You can look into companion plants to protect the bush. In my own case, I give my plants a good mist of cold water and that's enough to keep the aphids at bay. Give the bush a shower here and there and that should be good enough.

Ah you're right, it's definitely a hibiscus. I remembered there was a picture of it in the house listing.

I am not a natural gardener, but it's such a lovely mature garden I don't want to ruin it! I've read that you should prune hibiscus bushes in Feb/March, is that right? It is a bit overgrown in front of the door, so would like to clean that up.

Just as an aside, I have a couple of Hibiscus bushes and I'd warn you that they look utterly dead until about June. I used to despair looking at them with everything else out, with fresh leaves and bouncy flowers, and these bloomin things looking deceased!

I'm in NW Eng though, if you are further south you may see signs of life in May...