HYDRANGEA. 



THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. HYDRANGEA. 



505 



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 

 feet, 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 intro- 

 duced and described, some of them as 

 distinct species. Dr Maximowicz, who 

 has had opportunities of studying them 

 in European and Japanese gardens, and 

 also in a wild state, arranges the following 

 forms under H. Hortensia : 



H. Hortensia acuminata. A much- 

 branched shrub, 2 to 5 feet 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 H. 

 Belzonii. In woods and on the shady 

 banks of rivers it grows taller with slender 

 stems, pointed leaves, and much smaller 

 flowers. 



H. Hortensia japonica. The H.japonica 

 of Siebold and Zuccarini's Flora Japonica, 

 and the H. japonica macrosepala of Regel's 

 Gartenflora. It is exactly like acuminata, 

 save that the flowers are tinged with red, 

 and the sepals of the barren flowers are 

 elegantly toothed. 



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. 



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. 



H. Hortensia communis. The old 

 variety with rosy-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 stellata. The chief char- 

 acter of this variety is in the flowers, 

 which are all sterile and double. The 

 variety in cultivation has pink flowers, 

 but they are described as being either pale 

 blue or rose, finally changing to a greenish 

 colour, and distinctly net-veined. 



The white variety, Thomas Hogg, is a 

 very fine one, now widely cultivated. 



Most of the above-named deserve the 

 attention of all who have soil and climate 

 suited to these shrubs. 



H. PANICULATA (Plumed Hydrangea). 

 A shrub or small tree. According to 

 Maximowicz, the only Japanese Hydran- 

 gea that becomes a tree. It grows as 

 much as 25 feet high, with a dense rounded 

 head and a straight trunk 6 inches in 

 diameter. But it more commonly forms 

 a shrub a few feet high, bearing enormous 

 panicles of flower. With the exception of 

 H. Hortensia, it is the commonest species 

 in Japan, growing throughout that country 

 both in the mountains and the plains, 

 being more abundant in the northern 

 parts, and it is said to vary very much. 

 It is commonly cultivated by the Japanese. 

 The clusters are often i foot long and half 

 as much in diameter, but to get such 

 flowers we must cultivate well and prune 

 the shrubs hard down in winter. 



H. PETIOLARIS (Climbing Hydrangea). 

 A Japanese climbing shrub with tall 

 slender stems that send out roots which 

 will fix it to a wall. Its wood is of a 

 soft character, resembling that of the 



The Plumed Hydrangea. 



slower-growing Ivies, and it annually 

 gives off fresh sets of roots along its 

 branches by means of which it clings to 

 rocks, stone, stucco, bricks, and even 

 wooden palings. It is deciduous, of free 

 growth, and flowers freely in sunny 

 positions. I know one case where a plant 

 has grown in a sunny corner of the house 



