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wide. Hence it is possible to get some
change of soil by digging and planting a path, making a new path
where formerly was "bed."
.....Those
sections have each a distinct character. So that the scheme gives
a rough classification according to affinities. Thus my principal
sections or groups are denoted Mesopotamica, Cypriana, Trojana,
pallida, variegata, Germanica, and there is a large patch of miscellaneous
garden forms. The first four named consist chiefly of my own seedlings,
and the arrangement is convenient for comparison. Of course, some
aliens have found their way into most of the sections, and it
may not prove possible to keep up such a formal scheme. Formal
it sounds, but the effect is perhaps as satisfying as a colour
scheme. However, for aesthetic reasons, I include a certain number
of varieties, mostly of peculiar colouring, from the main patch,
because their tones seem to show best in an isolated clump planted
in a mixed border. I thus isolate (among others) Edouard Michel,
Mount Penn, Isoline, Eldorado, Asia, Goldcrest (whose almost blue
tone is rather lost among purples and violets), and some of my
own seedlings.
But when one begins to discuss questions of taste, it is perhaps
time to stop.
HOW TO GROW BEARDED IRISES.
BY
G. YELD.
HAD I been asked to write
a short paper on how to grow Bearded Irises twenty or even ten
years ago I should have faced the task with much more confidence
than I do to-day. Why, you will ask, should I with greater experience
write with less confidence? In those days I thought little or
nothing of Iris diseases. To-day they have thrust themselves on
my acquaintance and are even more unwelcome than the pushing bore
who would fain be intimate with you whether you will or not. In
old days we grew excellent apples in our Hertfordshire garden
with very little or no knowledge of the apple tree's enemies.
To-day the apple tree's dangers are dinned into my ears with insistence
and I have to admit the necessity for all sorts of safeguards
if I am to hope for a crop of fruit.
.....Well,
then, whilst danger may loom in the background in the shape of
those diseases which thrust themselves upon the notice of the
Iris grower. I will briefly give my views on Iris growing.
.....Firstly, choose a sunny position-the more sun the better.
This injunction had, I thought, by this time sunk into the minds
of all who have had experience of Bearded Irises, and yet I read
a few days ago in the catalogue (published in 1924!) of a popular
nursery: "They do well in shade." I do not mean to say
they will not grow in shade and perhaps give a few flowers, but
they will not flourish. And yet two of my own seedlings which
have appeared in Messrs. Backhouse's list for some years are,
in my judgment, improved by moderate, not heavy shade, viz., Celia
(a seedling from Bridesmaid), and Porsenna. The improvement in
Celia consists in the increased whiteness of the blossom, and
in Porsenna in the increased stature of the flower-stem.
.....Secondly, give them good drainage-I grow my plants for
the most part in narrow beds raised a little above the ground
level. The soil in most of my garden here at Gerrard's Cross is
a rather heavy loam over gravel (it suits roses remarkably well).
I expected Irises to take to it, and so they do, but this year
I have carried on a by no means trifling struggle against disease-but,
as I am not now treating of Iris diseases, I say no more about
them. If the soil is very heavy I should add sand and some light
loam to it when planting the Irises. Careful weeding and the removal
of dead leaves (not the premature tearing away or clipping of
the foliage) are taken for granted.
.....It
is seldom that Bearded Irises suffer from drought-should such
an
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