HYACINTHUS. THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. 



HYDRANGEA. 



though it is perfectly hardy, and when 

 treated as it should be, most impor- 

 tant. The parent of all the varieties, 

 H. orientalis is as hardy as a Daffodil, 

 and its varieties are scarcely less 

 hardy. Hyacinths in the open air 

 are generally the refuse, as it were, of 

 the forced bulbs of preceding years, 

 but even these make a good display 

 in suitable positions. To have a fine 

 bloom of Hyacinths in the open air, 

 however, it is essential that the bulbs 

 should be good and sound, and due 

 regard paid to assortment of colour, as 

 tints massed by themselves are far 

 more effective than a confusion of 

 various colours. Late planting and 

 deep planting both tend to defer the 

 bloom, but make no great difference, 

 and as a rule late bloom is to be pre- 

 ferred, being less liable to injury from 

 frost. . The shallowest planting should 

 ensure a depth of 3 inches of earth 

 above the crown of the bulb, but, 

 generally speaking, they will flower 

 better, be a few days later, and form 

 stronger bulbs after flowering, if there 

 is fully 6 inches of earth over the 

 crowns. Hyacinths in the open air 

 seldom require artificial watering, 

 the natural moisture of the soil and 

 the strength of the manure mixed 

 with it being sufficient. When grown 

 in beds they do not require sticks or 

 ties ; simply proper planting. After 

 blooming, the bulbs, if intended to 

 flower again, must be left undisturbed 

 until the leaves wither or die. The 

 bulbs should then be taken up, dried 

 in a stack for a week or two, and 

 finally placed in the sun for a few hours, 

 the dry leaves being pulled off. Offsets 

 should also be removed from the bulbs, 

 and stored in dry sand or earth till the 

 next planting time. Some take up the 

 bulbs every year, but we have seen 

 handsome beds that were not disturbed 

 for several years. 



H. AMETHYSTINUS. Though nearly re- 

 lated to H. azureus, is quite different, and 

 flowers a month later and at a time when 

 there is a dearth of flowers of this descrip- 

 tion in the hardy bulb garden. 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. 



H. AZUREUS. One of the earliest as 

 well as the most charming of our early 

 spring flowers. In the case of a dwarf 

 bulb of this kind flowering so early, a 



handlight or bell-glass is simply placed 

 over the clump on the approach of a 

 storm," taking the cover off when all danger 

 is past. The flowers stand any amount 

 of frost without injury, and it is only the 

 chance of their being broken with snow 

 that renders a covering necessary. The 

 bulb is whitish, round, an inch or so in 

 diameter, producing in great abundance 

 stolons or bulbils from the base ; the 

 leaves, in number from six to eight to a 

 bulb, are broad, strap-shaped, glaucous, 

 and deeply channelled ; the flower-heads 

 dense, conical, upper flowers sky-blue, 

 campanulate, the lower deep azure blue, 

 and larger than those of the ordinary 

 Grape Hyacinth. 



H. candicans. See GALTONIA. 



HYDRANGEA. Handsome flower- 

 ing shrubs, some well known in gar- 

 dens, others neglected. In warm dis- 

 tricts 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. ARBORESCENS. A vigorous and 

 hardy shrub, 4 feet or more high, flowering 

 freely July and August. Flowers a dull 

 white, very small and crowded. Native 

 of eastern N. America, south of New York 

 State. The variety grandiflora, a very 

 beautiful form, with flowers large and pure 

 white, is from the mountains of Pennsyl- 

 vania. 



H. BRETSCHNEIDERI (syn. H. pekinen- 

 sis). A Chinese shrub from the mountains 

 near Pekin. Planted in the full sun is 

 said to make a very handsome shrub, 

 vigorous and hardy, and flowering in mid- 

 summer. 



H. CHINENSIS (Fortune's H.). Near 

 the last, but of more robust habit, with 

 leaves 3 to 5 inches long, and with cymes 

 of flowers much larger. It differs from 

 H. virens in the leaves, being green on 

 both sides, and in the enlarged sepals 

 being nearly equal in size, much thicker 

 in fact, almost fleshy in substance, and 

 remaining on the branches until the fruit 

 of the fertile flowers is ripe. This species 

 was collected by Mr Fortune in N. China. 



H. HIRTA (Nettle-leaved H.). A dwarf 

 shrub, 3 or 4 feet high, with slender hairy 

 branches and Nettle-like leaves. The 

 leaves and branches become nearly or 

 quite glabrous with age. This, although 

 not a showy species, seems to be a pretty, 

 compact, dwarf shrub, with numerous 

 clusters of white flowers. A native of the 

 mountains of Japan. 



H. HORTENSIA. The common Hydran- 

 gea (H. Hortensia), from China, may be 

 grown well out of doors, but is not always 



