October 14, 1905 



horticulture: 



391 



Hydrangea Thomas Hogg in 

 Washington 



The ilhistration shows a group of Thomas Hogg hy- 

 drangeas in the garden of J. E. Freeman, at Washing- 

 ton. Mr. Freeman writes : "These plants have been 

 growing on the north side of my house for at least ten 

 years. I find that in this section they do not do very 

 well unless they are on the north side where the hot sun 

 cannot hurt them. A little back of these I have a bed 

 which we have cut thousands from this summer. It 

 ■was a great sight when they were in full bloom, tjie 

 whole plot north of my liouse being one mass of liy- 

 dranseas. 



Retarding Hydrangea paniculata 

 grandiflora 



I send herewith a pholograpli of Hydrangea panicu- 

 lata grandiflora, taken about Sept. 15, 1905, the blooms 

 having at that date Just arrived at condition for cutting. 

 I have for the past four or five years been experimenting 

 with this shrub with a view to prolonging the season of 

 blooming, and the results of my experience may be of 

 sufficient interest to many of your readers to warrant 

 you in publishing them. 



T obtained the first practical results in the summer 

 of 1903, when by pinching out the flowers about July 

 1st to 4th I secured a good crop of very useful bloom 

 up to the end of September, and they were even of 

 clearer white than the flowers from nature's crop had 

 been. During the summer of 1904 I pinclied the bnds 

 out about the 10th to 15th of July with tlie expectation of 

 prolonging the season still later, but the shoots absolute- 

 ly refused to break, and they stood there the balance of 

 the season with their stumpy tops and not a solitarv 

 flower was produced. Tliis "year, summer of 1905. "l 

 watclied carefully until T tlioiight the buds were in the 



projier condition to be removed and, as I said before, 

 the results were very satisfactory. 



From observation I should recommend the buds to be 

 pinched out just as they become plainly evident to the 

 touch and before they are actually visible to the eye. 

 It is to be presumed that location will influence the 

 ]ilant more or less as to the time of producing buds, and 

 consequently tlie time to remove them; but I fancy that 

 the time will not materially vary as the plant is not one 

 to start into growth until fairly warm weather ap- 

 ])roaclies. 



After removing buds far enough back to get all parts 

 of tlie panicle, but not far enough back to reach even 

 liaif-i'ipi'iiod wood, I have found the plants break in 

 alioiif («() weeks with from one to four shoots. A lib- 

 eral supply of water should be given after pinching up 

 to the time of blooming, and even a little stimulant 

 should be given so as to make the secondary growth 

 longer and stronger. I notice that after the flower 

 heads are well formed the shoots are liable to break 

 down at the juncture with older wood, and have found 

 a slender tipped cane stake tied to plant lower down and 

 top allowed to project to the lower end of new flowers 

 and each flower tied loosely to the cane to be of great ad- 

 vantage. A yielding support is better than a rigid one, 

 as the latter would produce broken heads as a result of 

 wind storms, etc., on account of the brittle stems. 



It is possible in this way to prolong the season here 

 from till' iiiiddlc of .July to'October 1st at least, and this 

 may lir .|..iir nn i lie same plants by pinching some of the 

 stronger slmnis ;inil allowing others to bloom naturally. 

 Water lil^erally, meantime. 



The plants shown in photograph are near my own 

 liouse and have had personal attention, and the "result 



as shown in picture repaid me for the extra trouble ex- 

 pended. I have found these later flowers very useful at 

 my store and I shall still be able to cut some fine blooms 

 for sevoi'al days yet, up lo Oct. 6th or later. 



