VOL. XLIX. NO. 2121 . NEW YORK, SEPTEMBER 20 , i89o. 
PRICE, FIVE CENTS. 
$ 2.00 PER YEAR. 
THE CLIMBING HYDRANGEA. 
WILLIAM FALCONER. 
HAT splendid, half-hardy, shrubby hydrangea which 
is grown so much in pots, tubs and boxes, and 
wintered inside in the cellar and placed outside in 
summer to grow and bloom, is H. hortensis, a native of 
China, and we also have many popular forms of it, such as 
Otaksa and Thomas 
Hogg. And that 
extremely showy, 
hardy shrub so 
familiar in bloom 
in our gardens in 
August and S e p- 
tember, is H. pani- 
culata grandiflora 
and comes to us 
from Japan. And 
our American spe¬ 
cies, namely, H. 
arborescens, H. ra- 
diata and H. querci- 
folia, all shrubs, 
are not infrequent 
in cultivation in 
garden shrub¬ 
beries. To many 
who are familiar 
with only these 
shrubby forms the 
existence of a true 
climbing hydran¬ 
gea may seem some¬ 
what mythical, but 
in H. scandens (also 
called H. petiolaris) 
we have, in fact, 
such a species. It 
comes to us from 
Japan and has been 
pretty generally 
distributed here 
during the last few 
years, but it has 
not met with as 
much favor as it 
deserved, and this 
has been due a good 
deal to the fact that 
its cultivation has 
been imperfectly 
understood. Some 
years ago our flo¬ 
rists and nursery¬ 
men gave it |con- 
siderable promi¬ 
nence and Peter 
Henderson & Co., 
of New York, made 
a specialty of it; 
the public as a rule 
accepted it in good 
faith, but a few of 
us (I among them), 
who ought to have 
known better, were 
skeptical regarding 
its worth as a suit- 
able ornamental 
plant for our use, 
and threw “cold 
water ” upon it. I 
have known and 
grown it long 
enough, however, 
to acknowledge my early error, and insist that in this new¬ 
comer, wo have an exceedingly valuable, hardy, ornamental 
vine. It was originally distributed under the name of 
Scbizophragma hydrangeoides, which is a totally different 
plant, and hereinafter referred to. The Climbing Hydran¬ 
gea (H. scandens) is a close, fast growing vine that attaches 
itself by means of adventitious roots, which it bears along 
its stems and branches, to rough stone or wooden surfaces 
in the same way as does Evergreen Ivy (Hedera) or Boston 
Ivy (Ampelopsis Veltchii), and nowhere does it seem more 
at home or appropriate thaji when climbing up the stems 
from cuttings, slips or layers. But they do not bloom till 
they are a few years old and have made some hard wood ; 
after they start to bloom, however, they flower regularly 
year after year. At Boston there are several old flowering 
specimens; one of the finest is in the late Marshall P. 
Wilder’s garden, where it has taken possession of a large 
pear tree. The largest specimen that I know of is 40 fee 
high and growing 
on an old chestnut 
tree, about 60 feet 
high in the garden 
of Mr. L. M. Meyer, 
Staten Island, New 
York. The true 
Schizophragma hy¬ 
drangeoides also 
from Japan, is like¬ 
wise in cultivation 
in our gardens, but 
somewhat rare, and 
I have never seen it 
in bloom except in 
Mr. S. B. Parson’s 
garden at Flush¬ 
ing, N. Y. It is very 
nearly related to 
the Climbing Hy¬ 
drangea, which it 
also much resem¬ 
bles in foliage, gen¬ 
eral appearance 
and habit. To the 
initiated it is un¬ 
mistakable at any 
time, but when in 
bloom no one can 
help observing the 
difference between 
the two plants. 
The sterile flowers 
of the Hydrangea 
scandens have four 
petaloid sepals as 
other hydrangeas 
have, but the ster¬ 
ile flower of the 
Schizophragma has 
only one petaloid 
leaf. It blooms 
about the end of 
June. Decumaria 
barbara is a smooth 
climbing shrub, in¬ 
digenous to the 
Southern States, 
and often called the 
American Climb¬ 
ing Hydrangea. It 
ascends the trunks 
of trees much in 
the same way as do 
its near relatives, 
the previously men¬ 
tioned Japanese 
plants, and it is 
quite a rapid 
grower, and, espe¬ 
cially in the South, 
a very beautiful 
plant. It is hardy 
o n Long Island, 
and thrives fairly 
well in New Jersey, 
Fig- 265. but to find it in its 
best state we have 
to go South. Its flowers are white, all fertile and fragrant, 
and are produced on large compound terminal cymes. 
LLitil a few years ago this plant was the only known 
species of the genus, but now another species, named 
Decumaria Sinensis, has been discovered in Central China 
It has not yet been introduced to cultivation, but botan¬ 
ists tell us it is a valuable, ornamental, climbing shrub, 
with beautiful white, fragrant flowers. 
R. N.-Y. Remarks —Our illustrations (Figs. 265and266), 
were drawn from specimens sent from the Rural Grounds. 
The vine was planted eight or 10 years ago when Schizo- 
of thin-topped live trees, as locusts, catalpa, red cedar, 
pear, etc. But it should not be planted to cover the trunks 
of close-headed trees like lindens, or earth-robbing ones 
like the beech or elm. In climbing up the tree the vines 
branch out and completely encase the trunk and also 
spread out to cover the lower parts of the main branches. 
The vines hug close to the supports without any outside 
THE CLIMBING HYDRANGEA. From Nature. 
assistance. The leaves are ovate-cordate and finely ser¬ 
rated. The flowers are borne in immense flat, often 
branched, cymes, and are what is known in gardens as 
“single,” only a few of those that are scattered along the 
outside of the cymes are sterile, that is, large, white, and 
showy like those of the “ Double’’-flowering Hydrangeas; 
all the other flowers are small, greenish-white and incon¬ 
spicuous. They bloom in June, just about strawberry 
time. Altogether the flowers are not very showy, but 
even if the plauts never produced any blossoms, they are, 
as vines, a valuable desideratum. They are easily raised 
