GO CHANGE OP COLOUR IN THE HYDRANGEA. 



extras should be put in to allow for casualties, as the Mignonette trans- 

 plants badly. The best Mignonette I ever saw grow was treated in 

 this way ; but as it is not every gardener who can procure pigeon's 

 dung, I may add, that guano will be found an excellent substitute. 

 This admirable fertilizer must, liowever, be applied in a liquid state, 

 and not before the pots have become well filled with roots, when a 

 small quantity of guano, given at intervals of a week or so, will increase 

 the vigour of the plants in an extraordinary degree. A second crop 

 might be sown in the beginning of September, and managed in the 

 same manner. Single plants will attain a large size in 32 or 24-sized 

 pots, if the main branches are pegged down as they grow, and the 

 flowers are kept pinched off for a time. 



CHANGE OF COLOUR IN THE HYDRANGEA. 



The transformation of colours in the Hydrangea has long been a 

 subject of peculiar interest. Mr. Kyle, a gardener at Leyton, in 

 the United Gardeners' Journal, states that his opinion is, any soil 

 will change Hydrangeas to blue, more or less ; that is to say, if it has 

 never been under cultivation, and adds, " I have drawn my opinions 

 from the following facts, than which I must say nothing can better 

 illustrate this freak of nature. My stock of plants were all taken from 

 one parent, and they were all rose-coloured when grown in pots. After 

 growing for two successive years, they were turned out into different 

 parts of the flower-garden, which consists of different sorts of soil, and 

 all those that were turned out where the soil was of a fertile nature 

 kept to the original colour, but those that were planted in peat pro- 

 duced blue flowers, and one, that produced them of the finest blue I 

 have ever seen, was planted in a red tenacious clay, mixed with what 

 is termed iron mould. The plant certainly was a little screened from 

 the hot sun, which might add to its colour. The most satisfactory 

 instance of the whole was in the case of a plant thit flowered for three 

 or four years after being planted out in the border, and always true to 

 the original colour ; but as we had occasion to make a small piece of 

 rock-work close to it, a mound of Epping Forest loam, placed there 

 for the purpose of supporting the rock-work and growing the plants, 

 came in close contact with the stems of the plant. After a year or so, 

 the roots of the Hydrangea worked its way into tins loam, and the con- 

 sequence was that the side of the plant nearest to the rock-work pro- 

 duced blue flowers, while the other side continued to bear them of the 

 original rose colour, and this has occurred for four or five years. Last 

 year I had no flowers, as they were all cut down by the severity of the 

 season. I intend this year growing some of the Hydrangea japonica 

 in peat, to see the effect on that species. I hope that these instances 

 of what seems a mystery to our limited senses, will be of some use in 

 throwing light on this subject. The whys and the toherefores cannot 

 alter the facts before our eyes. That there is a cause no person can 

 doubt ; but I leave this subject for some one more able than myself to 

 grapple with. 



