My hydrangea hell

[NewspaperTaxis]

Last year I bought and planted a hydrangea - it wasn't huge but it had the big blue flowers and I planted it with the hydrangea food you're supposed to, dug a bit hole for it with compost and so on.
Over the winter it sort of wilted and seemed to die. Then some green shoots appeared, so I pruned the dead twigs around it.
Now, this is all very well but I was sort of hoping for a big bushy hydrangea of the sort you see in many a front garden. I don't know how long it takes to get to that point but currently what I have - and I bought another because the first one seemed to fade away quick - is not bushy at all, more a Brazilian!
I suppose I can add those Grow liquid things to make it go faster but did I buy the wrong kind? Did I get mugged off?
Also attached is a feature on a recent local paper about hydrangeas, but even then I'm not sure it's clear how big some of them are. Honestly, I sometimes think gardening should be easier than this!

you are supposed to dead-head (cut back to the first bud below old flower on top of the stem) in early spring. and take out any stems that are visible thinner than most.

they flower on the old wood.

and give if a shrub feed in spring once it gets going.

@NewspaperTaxis As @greenacrylicpaint says trim flower heads of and back to a bud, which is why you prune in Spring, when the new buds emerge.

I haven't ever hacked mine back to ground, just taken them down as nessesary to a healthy bud. As people have mentioned they flower on old wood so if you want flowers the next year best not to cut to ground level.

That said sometimes a harder pruning can help to shape the bush and get rid of week stems but not every year :)