in reply to Adding Hash to Hash of Hash?

A hash in scalar context

my %f = 1 .. 4; my $o = %f; die $o; __END__ 2/8 at - line 3.

You want to take a reference, you want  $HOH{1} = \%hash1;

Or all in one step

my %HOH = ( 1 => { key1 => 'value1', key2 => 'value2', key3 => 'value3', }, 2 => { key1 => 'value1', key2 => 'value2', key3 => 'value3', }, );

You want to read TutorialsData Types and VariablesData Type: Hashreferences quick reference