In My Garden
It is an old problem how to persuade a hydrangea to produce blue flowers ; but, whatever method is advised, there are always some growers who find that buried razor-blades or hair-curlers, or any other scrap iron, are of no avail. It seems that a lime-free soil is a necessary " condition precedent." If that is accorded, any scrap iron or special iron solutions (or perhaps Reckitts blue) are quite effective. Pinkness is often a sign of some particular deficiency in the soil, as with the forget-me-not ; though, of course, a number of plants, such as lungwort (the earliest of garden flowers) and viper's bugloss and hound's tongue, naturally hover between blue and pink. An exhibit at an R.H.S. Show reminds me that the early chrysanthemums are more satisfactory in a garden than the late which often fail to flower till the weather is ruinously hostile.
W. BEACH THOMAS.
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