HARDY SHRUBS, 157 



over a year before germinating. Seedlings of H. tetraptera are used as 

 stocks for the beautiful flowered Japanese Styrax. 



HIBISCUS SYRIACUS (Shrubby Althaea) is a deciduous shrub of easy 

 cultivation, and needing very little attention after being planted beyond 

 an occasionally thinning out of the branches. Most of the numerous 

 varieties are very neat and compact, growing from 5 to 12 feet in height. 

 They bloom late in the season, when most of the other shrubs are out 

 of flower. The double-flowered varieties root easily from cuttings of the 

 dormant wood, in early Spring, or from green wood in Summer. The 

 cuttings from the ripened wood should be made in the Fall and heeled 

 in out of the reach of frost in moderately dry sand. They may be put 

 in rows in the open as soon as weather permits, or they may be rooted 

 indoors early and planted out later. Several of the single varieties come 

 true from seed, of which an abundant crop is usually produced. H. s. 

 totus-albus is a useful single white variety and flowers when very small. 

 H. s. camelliaeflora is double white, with pink throat. H. s. Boule de 

 Feu, double, violet colored flowers. Other good double flowered forms 

 are H. s. Leopoldii flore-pleno, H. s. rubra pleno, H. s. purpurea flore- 

 pleno and H. s. Jeanne d' Arc. 



HYDRANGEA HORTENSIS is the common garden Hydrangea, of 

 which there are numerous varieties, all of them being hardy in the Dis- 

 trict of Columbia. Some are cut to the ground during Winter, but they 

 never get injured permanently. H. h. Lindleyana and H. h. stellata 

 prolifera usually survive the Winter with the stems several feet above 

 ground. These plants form very large specimens, and are very 

 handsome when in bloom, changing in color, as the flowers mature, 

 from greenish white to a deep rose. The central flowers are fertile, the 

 outer ones sterile. H. h. japonica has one or two very handsomely 

 variegated forms. Cuttings of these are apt to lose their leaves in the 

 sand bed, but in this condition they will root, making young growths 

 simultaneously with the rooting process; and if they are carefully put in 

 very small pots they will make fair-sized plants within a year. But 

 they must be kept in pots during this time, as the roots are much 

 weaker than those of the green-leaved plants. The variety known as 

 H. h. aurea-variegata is probably the handsomest of our hardy plants. 

 H. h. otaksa has large heads of rose-colored flowers. H. h. ramulus- 

 coccinea has dark colored stems and pink flowers. H. h. Thomas Hogg 

 has pure white flowers. Cuttings will root any time after the shoots 

 are moderately firm. Where wood is scarce the large stems may be 

 split down the middle with a leaf to each piece. Where pruning is neces- 

 sary it should be done early in the season, to throw vigor into the 

 shoots springing from the base of the plant. 



H. quercifolia, from the Southern States, opens its large pyram- 

 idal heads of flowers late in the season and is valuable on that account 

 alone; but the handsome foliage and its spreading, graceful habit com- 

 bined make it a most desirable shrub. It will thrive either in partial 

 shade or full sun. In propagating, the smallest of the ripened shoots 

 should be taken with the leaves attached, placing the stems deep in 

 the sand bed of the cool propagating house. If put in about the middle 



