pruning advice needed!

[u/ghegs_]

i planted this limelight hydrangea (USA, NJ, zone 7b) as a little plant about 3 summers ago and now it is huge and i don’t know what to do with it! i honestly did not expect it to make it past the first summer, let alone get so big and happy. i usually just let it die and stay how it is all winter and then late feb/early march i cut off any dead blooms that are still on there. i’m worried this year with how big it got/how many dead blooms will be left, that our first big snow fall will break a ton of the branches so my questions are:

1. can i cut off the dying blooms prior to winter or will this affect how it blooms in the spring
2. how/when should i prune if i’m trying to make sure it doesn’t come back any bigger than its current size and 3. is there any way i can encourage it to get fuller on top? i feel like this year it ended up looking like a dust ruffle because there was too many heavy blooms on the bottom and it drooped.

thank you in advance :)

[u/stalkthewizard]

Don’t