];3 
CULTURE OF THE HYDRANGEA HORTENSIS. 
Having frequently observed during- our tours, very large plants of Hydrangea 
hortemis, with very small heads of flowers, perhaps to the amount of fifteen or 
twenty clusters, and very often of a ding-y white colour ; we offer to our readers a 
very superior method of growing- this gay plant for the house or flower garden, 
whereby it may be seen in perfection nearly the whole year. No plant which we 
know will retain its beauty longer, and suffer less injury from being kept in a 
room. Persons who have plants in rooms most generally injure them with too 
much water, in which respect the Hydrangea is very accommodating, it requiring a 
good supply; the largest heads of flowers we have ever seen grown have been pro- 
duced in the method about to be described. 
In April or early in May, choose cuttings of the strongest shoots, about four or 
five joints ; trim off the leaves from that part of the stem only about to be im- 
mersed in the soil ; prepare then a wide mouthed pot, nearly half filled with pot- 
sherds, the remaining portion with light sandy loam ; let the cuttings be planted in 
this, not too close together, and place them in a frame where there is a lukewarm 
bottom heat ; in about a fortnight they will be rooted sufficiently to pot off, which 
should be done immediately, using the smallest pots the roots can be con- 
veniently got into without breaking, which will be some small and some large 
sixties, and again placed in the frame, and hardened to the open air by degrees. 
When all danger of frost is past, they may be taken out of the frame, and placed 
under a west aspect wall, where they should have abundance of water ; about the 
latter end of June they will require repotting into pots a size larger, and 
then placing them under a southern aspect, to ripen their ivood and buds. Much 
of the future success of the plants depend on this, for if the wood is not well 
ripened, however fine the plants may be, the flowers will be small in comparison. 
Should the season prove a wet one, they should be taken earlier into pits or the 
green-house, and kept pretty dry, which will materially assist them in maturing 
their buds ; a succession of cuttings should be put in a month later, and treated in 
a similar manner ; they should be placed in their winter quarters about the time of 
taking in green-house plants, and placed where they may have full exposure during 
the day and protection at night, here they may remain until wanted to force. In 
January or when the vinery is commenced with, or indeed any house where they 
will receive a moist temperature, the thermometer ranging from 60° to 65° Fahren- 
heit, the vinery is a very suitable place, as such waterings as are given to the vines 
is the very thing, of all others, that the Hydrangea delights in ; just as they start 
growing they will require another shift, and nothing more is necessary except 
frequent waterings over the head and at the root. 
The soil used is a rich light loam without any mixture whatever. 
