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[I'm on a learning mission to figure out what are growing around my house.] Here is something I can't come up with any guess what it is. It has these hard wood sticks coming out in between the leaves.

Unknown plant

Roc W.
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  • I don't think the sticks are growing, these are most likely "diebacks" from the last year. – Alex Alex May 28 '21 at 15:38
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    The sticks are leftover from last year. You can remove them if they bother you - just snap them off at the base, or really anywhere below this year's growth so you don't see them. Yearly maintenance for Hydrangeas usually involves removing the dead steps, either in the fall or early spring. But it's mostly for aesthetics, so if you don't want to bother it shouldn't harm your plant. – csk May 28 '21 at 16:47

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Your shrub appears to be a Hydrangea macrophylla lacecap variety, judging by the flower on the top left of the image. These do often have dead sticks sticking out from previous years and should be pruned back to the base. You might find you can just snap them off with your fingers though.

Your plant does look a little stunted - the flowers are smaller than one would expect, as are the leaves, so if this is not some kind of dwarf variety, it may be your plant needs fertilizer and/or regular watering.

Bamboo
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Looks like "snowball viburnum". Many clusters of white flowers in spring . It will get 20 ft. tall if not pruned. The limited number of blooms indicates it was pruned at the wrong time.

blacksmith37
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  • This should have been growing for quite a number of years, but it's only about 4 feet tall and doesn't particularly look like some of the images I can find. Also, does snowball viburnum tend to have died back sticks? – Roc W. May 28 '21 at 16:06
  • Not a snowball viburnum - the leaves are wrong for that species, and the flowers are too small. – Jurp May 29 '21 at 02:28