On the Cultivation of the Hydrangea. 65 



by the end of this period they will have made sufficient roots to 

 be removed to a warmer situation, where they may remain until 

 severe frosty weather, when they must be taken into the green- 

 house, frame, or, in want of either of these, the cellar. The 

 soil in either of these modes should be composed of peat or leaf 

 mould, with the addition of about one third sand. Out of twen- 

 ty-five cuttings, the most we ever put in at any one time, not one 

 failed to grow treated in this manner. 



The after management of the plants is very simple; the fol- 

 lowing season they should be shifted into No. 2 pots, and, as 

 they continue to grow, they will require larger ones, until they 

 reach such a size as to need large tubs. The soil should be 

 peat, from low situations, or bog earth, or, if these cannot be 

 procured, leaf mould. Give a good drainage to the pots, as 

 stagnant water is injurious to the roots. When the plants come 

 into bloom, keep them well saturated with water, and let them 

 stand in situations where the sun shines only a few hours in the 

 morning. The proper season for potting is early in March, just 

 before the plants begin to grow. 



Much has been written respecting the cause of the flowers 

 sometimes opening blue and at others red, and various modes 

 have been recommended to make the plants produce those of the 

 latter color. Bog earth, loam, and saturating the plants with water, 

 in which iron filings have been steeped, have each been tried, to pro- 

 duce the effect, and each have answered as well as failed to do so. 

 That it is owing to the presence of oxide of iron in the soil we 

 have no doubt; and when bog earth or loam can be procured of 

 the right kind, the color will be changed. This we know to be 

 the fact. A few years since we tried the experiment upon a 

 plant; it was an old one, and was separated so as to make two; 

 one was planted in bog earth, and the other in a hazel colored 

 loam; the flowers of the one in the bog earth were red, and 

 those on the other, in loam, were of a more intense blue than 

 any we have ever seen since. Cuttings that we have raised and 

 planted in the same loam have flowered blue. There are, per- 

 haps, few soils that possess this property, but when one is found 

 a stock of it should be secured, if blue flowers are desired; the 

 plants do not, however, grow so vigorously as in bog earth. It 

 is a good plan to grow the plants a year or two in loam, and then 

 shift them into bog earth; but it must be remembered that the 

 latter soil will sometimes produce blue flowers. 



Hydrangeas should be in every garden: the long period which 

 their flowers remain in perfection, and the care with which they 

 are grown, should entitle them to the notice of every lover of 

 flowers. 



[This article was written to appear last autumn, but was laid 

 aside to accommodate our correspondents.] 



VOL. III. — NO. n. 9 



