Hey, first time, first time here. My wife bought these two bushes a couple years ago and I was like, meh, I've seen better. But I let it go and planted them for my sweetie. The problem is, when they bloom, the flowers are OK, but they attract flies and frankly I find that pretty disgusting. Does anyone know what this bush is and how to keep the flies away?

! What you have there is a beautiful hydrangea! It's a very healthy happy plant. I believe it is the type called a lace cap. I don't know why flies are attracted to it, but I have noticed flies on several of my flowering plants. These are a different kind of flies from house flies; they are actually good flies, they help pollinate certain plants. They don't bite, and they don't eat human food, just pollen. 😊

Welcome to the site!

Flies and mosquitoes pollinate, some plants require a very specialized pollinator

I sympthize about the flies. This year I noticed how many flies I see at various flowering shrubs and plants, along with bees of all kinds. As gardenfish said though, I just learned that many good flies look like bad flies, so if you don't have any housefly problems , maybe you can let them be. Also I don't know which flowering shrubs would guarantee NOT attracting flies along with other pollinators.
https://wimastergardener.org/a....

Just fyi, my Burford holly also gets lots of flies, so if you want to sub, don't get that, and bear that in mind with any holly, I would guess.

Hey, thanks to gardenfish, crawgarden and sallyg for your responses, I'm kinda new at this gardening thing; I didn't even know what a hydrangea is, thanks, gardenfish. I am enjoying my bushes and the rest of the garden; I guess I'll just have to chill and coexist with these flies!

Insects populations are suffering and with them, songbirds that need them to eat, so I am glad to hear you will try to tolerate these bugs

Me too! House flies I kill, other flies I leave alone. And I don't kill houseflies unless they are in the house! My cats usually do it for me.

Looks like a panicle hydrangea similar to Quickfire or Little Quickfire.