HYDRANGEA. 



THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. 



HYDRANGEA. 



related to H. asureus, is quite different, 

 and flowers a month later and at a time 

 when there is a dearth of flowers of this 

 description in the hardy bulb-garden. It 

 is one of the very old plants, and although 

 cultivated by Miller as early as 1759, it 

 was until recently a scarce plant. The 

 great mistake with a bulb like this is to 

 have two or three or even a dozen in a 

 clump. Instead of the dozen it should be 

 grown by the hundred, and no prettier 

 sight can well be imagined than a large 

 sheet of this graceful Hyacinth, with its 

 loose racemes of vivid amethyst flowers. 

 Its pleasing flowers are produced in May 

 and June, when there is little chance of 

 their being disfigured by frosts. Spain 

 and Italy.—D. K. 



H. candicans. See Galtonia. 

 HYDRANGEA.— Handsome flowering 

 shrubs, some well known in gardens, 

 others neglected. In warm districts and 

 on good warm soils it would be well 

 worth while to grow many of the rarer 

 and finer forms of the common Hydrangea, 

 which always flowers best in seashore 

 districts where its shoots are not cut 

 down by frost or by the knife every winter. 

 H. Hortensia.^The common Hydran- 

 gea {H. Hortensia)^ from China, may be 

 grown well out-of-doors, but is not 

 always satisfactory in the midlands and 

 the north, being liable to injury in winter. 

 It likes a sheltered yet sunny spot and 

 good soil. In order to get good heads of 

 bloom, the Hydrangea must be pruned so 

 as to induce the growth of strong shoots. 

 In favoured spots it reaches a height of 

 6 ft., and as much through, making a 

 beautiful object on a lawn or in the 

 shrubbery margin. From time to time, 

 and especially in recent years, other forms 

 have been introduced and described, some 

 of them as distinct species. Dr. Maxi- 

 mowicz, who has had opportunities of 

 studying them in European and Japan- 

 ese gardens, and also in a wild state, 

 arranges the following forms under H. 

 Hortensia : — 



(a) H. Hortensia acuminata. — A 

 much-branched shrub, 2 to 5 ft. high ; 

 flowers blue. It sports according to 

 locality, and Maximowicz enumerates 

 four such sports, viz.: In open places and 

 in a rich soil it is stouter, with erect thick 

 branches, large, broad, firm leaves, and 

 larger flowers with somewhat fleshy 

 sepals ; under cultivation it becomes more 

 showy, passing into //. Belzojiii. In 

 woods and on the shady banks of rivers 

 it grows taller with slender stems, pointed 

 leaves, and much smaller flowers. In a 

 very fertile soil, a stout plant with toothed 



sepals in the barren flowers, which are 

 commonly of a blue colour. This is 'the 

 true H. Biiergerioi Siebold and Zuccarmi's 

 Flora Japo7iica, and the H. japonica 

 ccertdescens of Regel. Sometimes it 

 produces white or rose-coloured flowers, 

 and then it is the H. roseo-alba, as'figured 

 in the Flore des Serres. These varia- 

 tions are all beautiful, but perhaps not 

 constant. 



ib) H. Hortensia japonica. — This is 

 the H. japonica of Siebold and Zuccarini's 

 Flora Japonica^ and the H. japonica 



Hydr.-ingea quercifolia. 



macrosepala of Kegel's Gartenflora. 

 It is exactly like aciiininata, save that the 

 flowers are tinged with red, and the 

 sepals of the barren flowers are elegantly 

 toothed. 



{c) H. Hortensia Belzonii. — A 

 short stout plant, with beautiful flowers, 

 the inner sterile ones being of an indigo- 

 blue, and the enlarged sterile ones white, 

 or only slightly tinged with blue, and 

 having entire sepals. There is a sport of 

 this in which the leaves are elegantly 

 variegated with white. This was raised 

 by Messrs. Rovelli, of Pallanza. 



id) H. Hortensia Otaksa. — This 

 has all the flowers sterile and enlarged. 

 A very handsome variety with rich dark 

 green leaves nearly as broad as long, and 

 large hemispherical heads of pale pink or 

 flesh-coloured flowers, very fine when well 

 grown. 



{e) H. Hortensia communis. — This 

 is the old variety with rose-pink flowers, 

 commonly cultivated in European gardens. 

 It differs from the last in being perfectly 

 glabrous in its longer, less-rounded 

 leaves, and in its deeper-coloured 

 flowers. 



(/) H. Hortensia Azisia. — This is 

 not in cultivation, but it differs remark- 

 ably from all of the preceding varieties in 



