1870. ] 
BLUE HTDEANGEAS. 
65 
very much of two of the best varieties John Standish has ever produced—Ensign 
and Carminata. I also fortunately had two of my best seedlings for the year in 
bloom at show-time; both are distinct, and quite up to the right standard. 
Oliver Goldsmith, warm blush, shaded rosy crimson feathers, throat tinged with 
bronze ; very large flower, splendid shape, fine spike. Had this flower been sent 
out by M. Souchet, I would have said at once that it had come from the same 
strain of seed as Madame Dombrain and Thomas Moore. The second I have 
called Earl Spencer^ after our present most popular Viceroy ; rich orange scarlet,, 
shaded ; throat white, with crimson blotch, feathered with very dark claret-brown,. 
—a seedling, I think, from Meyerbeer. Those two have been proved for two 
years, and may, I think, be fairly relied on. If my judgment was as crude to-day 
as it was some eight or ten years ago, I should probably be calling public atten¬ 
tion to some 40 or 50, in place of two new varieties of my own; but I am not 
unmindful of the advice of a veteran and kindly critic to young authors :—‘^Burn 
more, and print less.” 
In the taking up and saving of Gladiolus bulbs, the lateness of the season causes, 
great difficulty, as it is scarcely possible to get them out of the ground in detail 
where there is a large stock. I adopted the plan last season of taking all mine 
up in one day, as I do my Tulips. I placed them at once in their boxes in one of 
two new conservatories which I had just built, kept up a smart heat for about 
12 days, and then removed them, well saved and in good order, to the fruit and 
bulb room for the winter. They are now in fine condition, that i*s, all that came 
out of the ground healthy,—for the number of shriveled-up, leathery, dead bulbs 
was quite as large as usual, and the cause of this mortality remains still unex¬ 
plained. While speaking of taking up, it may be well to state that where a 
spike is cut while in full bloom, there the chance of the loss of the bulb seems 
to be greatly increased. This is, I suppose, only natural, as the sudden shock of 
beheading must be severely felt, but it is an important consideration for ex¬ 
hibitors. This is a matter I have carefully noted, and I should like to know 
what growers generally think about it.—J. F. Lombard, Dublin. 
BLUE HYDKANGEAS. 
' LUE Hydrangeas have lately engaged some attention in the Florist ; and 
as I have for many years been in the habit of producing them of that beau¬ 
tiful colour, a hint on the subject maybe acceptable to Quo ” and others,, 
who, if they should live within a moderate distance of St. Alban’s, Herts., 
will find no difiiculty whatever in the matter, as at Oolney Heath (a few miles, 
from St. Alban’s), there is, or used to be, abundance of loam and bog earth, either 
of which, used separately, would grow Hydrangeas wth most beautiful blue flowers, 
without any more trouble than the usual potting. I once lived in that neigh¬ 
bourhood for about thirty years, so that I had ample time to prove the qualities 
of the soil; but, having left, and gone something like 100 miles another way, I 
could no longer grow them with any other than pink flowers. 
