HYDRANGEA. 
Greenhouse and Stove Plants. 
213 
stood in places where there is comparatively 
little light, even under the shade of other 
plants, in positions that few if any other 
flowering subjects would bear without 
being so injured as to be useless after- 
wards. 
There is a larger variety of the common 
form, with the individual flowers of which 
the head is composed, as well as the head 
itself, much bigger than the older more 
generally known kind. This is the best to 
grow, differing in no way as to the treat- 
ment it requires in propagation, soil, and 
time of flowering. Cuttings will strike at 
any time of the yearthat they can beobtained 
in a half or three parts ripened state, but 
to ensure the large heads on small plants 
such as above described, the best method is 
to have a few plants grown out in an open 
sunny situation, where they keep strong 
and short-jointed. These, according to the 
early or late character of each season, will 
generally get sufficiently matured to be 
. taken off in August, at which time the buds 
will be formed in the points, in which 
state they should be taken off at about the 
third joint below the bud, and inserted 
either singly in small pots or several round 
the side of a 6-inch one. Place a few bits 
of crocks in the bottom of each, on these 
a little fibrous material, and dry or flaky 
rotten dung, such as has been used for 
mulching a Vine border or Asparagus bed, 
They are in no way particular as to soil, 
but if it is preferred to have some of a blue 
shade and others the normal colour, a 
portion may be struck and grown in sandy 
peat and the others in loam, in both cases 
using it for the cuttings in something like 
a proportion of one-fourth sand to the loam 
or peat. The cuttings should be severed 
at a joint, and inserted firmly in the soil, the 
leaves, except those at the base which must 
necessarily be removed, being retained. 
A slight hot-bed should be prepared, on 
which place an ordinary frame with glazed 
lights; in this plunge the pots, keeping 
them well moistened and shaded from the 
sun, but with the lights tilted night and 
day, so as to keep the tops cool, otherwise 
the heat will have a tendency to cause them 
to break into growth, and they would be 
spoilt for flowering in the dwarf state they 
are intended to assume. They will soon 
strike, after which the shading must be 
dispensed with, and when they are well 
furnished with roots at once remove them 
to 6-inch pots, in which they may be 
allowed to flower. Keep them quite cool 
through the autumn—any pit, frame, or 
house will answer, in which they will not 
get frozen—it is better not to subject them 
to frost ; they will cast their leaves before 
winter, nothing remaining but the woody 
shoot with the bud at its extremity. But 
never allow the soil to become dry, or the 
roots will suffer. If desired, a portion of 
the plants may be had in bloom early by 
putting them in a moderate heat at 
Christmas, such as a vinery or peach-house 
at work, or anywhere where an inter- 
mediate temperature is kept up; here 
they will soon commence growing, making 
two or three pairs of leaves below the 
flowers. As soon as they begin growing 
freely those that are intended to come with 
pink flowers may be assisted once a week 
with moderately strong manure-water, 
which will cause the production of much 
larger heads of bloom ; but, we have never 
been able to produce flowers of a decided 
blue colour if manure-water was used ; 
when it has been given to them even when 
they were grown in all peat, or with alum 
or iron in the soil, they have come neither 
one thing or other, but a not very pleasing 
mixture of both. Such asare wanted later 
may be put in a little warmth, and some 
allowed to come on with the assistance of 
solar heat in an ordinary greenhouse 
temperature. So managed a succession of 
flowers can be kept up for six months. If 
suckers are produced at the base these 
should be removed until the plants come 
into flower. After the blooms have got 
shabby the shoots that have borne them 
may be cut out at the bottom, as suckers 
are sure to spring that will make more 
compact plants ; plunge them out-of-doors 
for the summer, winter out of the reach 
of frost, and in the spring, just as they 
show signs of beginning to grow, head 
them right down to the bottom. They 
will quickly throw up shoots that will 
produce large heads of bloom on much 
shorter growth than if borne upon the old 
wood formed the preceding year. We 
have kept plants for three years in the 
same 6-inch pots they were first potted in 
without either change or addition of soil, 
simply by using manure-water during the 
time they were growing ; in the second and 
third years they produced from three to 
half-a-dozen fine heads, showing what can 
be accomplished with the aid of liquid 
manure to such plants as will bear it—in 
this case they may be said to have been 
altogether supported by it, as the small 
quantity of soil in which the roots were 
placed must, after the first year, have 
become so exhausted as to be nothing more 
than a medium through which the liquid 
sustenance was conveyed to them. For 
anything perceptible in the appearance of 
the plants as to vigour and ability to 
produce flowers, they would have gone on 
