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drought of 1921 secured (though not for
me) such a display of in 1922 as I had never seen, plants stuck
in odd corners for want of room to give them "a place in
the sun" were covered with bloom. I may add that I had left
Harrow in 1922 before the flowering season began!
.....Since
that time I have made a new start in totally different conditions,
and my experience is still in the making. My chief Iris bed (about
22 yards by 10 yards) is on the steep slope of a North Hampshire
chalk down, facing south and defended from the north by the down
rising above, and by a belt of trees some way back. The soil is
a light porous loam, fairly well cultivated hitherto for vegetables,
but never, I should think, trenched. The chalk, at the top of
the slope at least, is only a few inches down, and flints abound.
It remains to be seen whether it is beneficial not to break up
the sub-soil. I hope to trench a piece this year as an experiment.
I should be inclined to acquiesce in the shallowness of the top
spit, but that the bed has suffered the last two years (whether
the cause is 'seasonal' or not) from. severe attacks of leaf-spot
(Heterosporium gracile); while parts of it, though the conditions
are normally dry, get coated in autumn with a growth of moss,
which must to some extent interfere with drainage; this too may
possibly be a 'seasonal' excrescence: one would not like to condemn
the British autumn on the evidence of 1922 and 1923. Meanwhile
I am trying what can be done on the surface, giving liberal dressings
of wood-ashes; and this spring I have treated the whole bed with
superphosphate.
.....Samples
of my Harrow collection (which, in spite of constant weeding out
of inferior varieties, had really become rather unmanageable)
were transfered to these new conditions in July, 1921, the middle
of the great drought. It was noticeable that, whereas the ground
was dust dry when they were planted, and no rain beyond a thunder
shower or two fell for several weeks, the plants were well established
by September, and for their size, flowered well the following
year, far better indeed than in 1923, when a mild winter encouraged
too early growth, and the deadly frosts of April and May made
many a flower spike abortive. The result is that scores of unflowered
seedlings which came with me from Harrow have not yet declared
their quality.
.....It
seems now to be generally accepted that 'after flowering' is the
best time to move Irises of this class, though I remember the
time when nurserymen shook their heads at an order for delivery
in July. The only question is 'how soon after?' I must own that
in my own case this is decided by convenience. One naturally prefers
not to choose a period of absolute drought: when driven to do
so at Harrow I plied the hose freely after planting, but I doubt
if this is really necessary. I now operate about the end of June,
in fact as soon as all have finished flowering.
.....It
is no doubt advisable to break up large old clumps, especially
if the rhizomes are getting piled upon one another. But I have
a notion that some of the very large flowered kinds, especially
those derived from giants like Mesopotamica and Cypriana, need
to develop a good mass of rhizomes in order to flower well. In
such cases I prefer not to lift the whole clump (unless the ground
is to be re-made), but to break pieces off to increase stock,
leaving a good lump behind.
.....It
is perhaps superfluous to say that the plants should be kept clean
in winter. I never cut off healthy leaves, but two or three times
between October and February I pull off all dead foliage which
comes easily away. I have done this the more assiduously the last
two years, because the leaves were rusty: of course they all go
on the bonfire.
.....In
a large garden it is doubtless well to recognise that soil may
get "Iris sick" in time, and the ideal thing would be
to plant new patches every three or four years and grow something
else in the old ones. But with many of us ideals must give way
to practical considerations. I do plant new Iris beds, but the
old ones remain as full as before! My big plot is divided into
sections by paths, merely trodden, not graveled, three feet
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