64 On the Cultivation of the Hydrangea. 



cause why they are not grown to greater perfection. The pecu- 

 liar soil which they delight to grow in, and in which alone they 

 ever flourish successfully, is not always to be conveniently found; 

 recourse is consequently had to the common earth of the garden, 

 in- which they grow tolerably well for a little while, but finally 

 dwindle away and die. Persons unacquainted with the plants, 

 at all, are apt to kill them immediately; having a desire to enrich 

 the soil, manure is added, which is sure death to them. The 

 following few hints may be therefore of some service lo our 

 readers. 



Hydrangeas are cultivated by layers and by cuttings; the for- 

 mer make the largest plants in the shortest period of time, but 

 the latter method is the most convenient, and the plants are hand- 

 somer shaped. To propagate by layers, all that is necessary is 

 to plunge the plant in the garden, or turn it out into the soil, and 

 place round it some suitable earth; then make a slit in the shoots, 

 longitudinally through a bud, and peg them into the soil, cover- 

 ing them over an inch or two in depth. The operation may be 

 done either before or after the plants expand their blossoms; in 

 either case they will generally root very easily. To propagate 

 the plants by cuttings, the shoots should be taken off in the 

 spring, about a fortnight previous to the breaking of the buds, 

 just as they begin to swell, or in the fall, two or three weeks 

 after they have finished their summer's growth, and the wood 

 begins to harden. The former season may be chosen to 

 procure flowering plants of a small size, but the latter should 

 be preferred where the object is only to get plants, without any 

 regard to their early blooming. Cultivators who put in cuttings 

 in the spring go over the old plants and select such shoots, as, 

 from their swelled appearance and firm feeling, they judge will 

 throw out flower-buds; these are cut off below a bud, with from 

 one to three inches of the wood, and are inserted singly in small 

 pots, and plunged in a gentle bottom heat, and shaded from the 

 rays of the hot sun; they soon emit roots, and they are then 

 shifted into the next size pots, (No. 2,) in which they generally 

 produce a fine large umbel of flowers. Plants thus treated have 

 a very pretty appearance, the flowers sometimes being three times 

 the size of the pots they are growing in. This mode may be adopted 

 with amateurs, but is attended with more care than that of taking 

 off the cuttings in the autumn. 



After the summer shoots have acquired some solidity, and be- 

 gin to assume a slightly brownish tinge, cut off" the ends of as 

 many as there are plants wanted; let them be about four inches 

 long, and contain six leaves; be careful that they are cut across, 

 directly under a bud; trim oft' the two lower leaves, and insert 

 each cutting in a No. 1 pot. Place them in a frame or against a 

 north wall, where they will be shaded from the sun for a month; 



