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In rather light rich soil, where no appreciable amount of lime is present, a very attractive bed can be made by planting seedlings of some of the Californian species. None of these Irises like being moved, though the plants can be divided and replanted in spring when growth is active. They do best when they are planted out as seedlings some four or five inches high, if possible in May, and in any case before midsummer. If they are kept too long in the seed pots, they have no time to grow to sufficient size to withstand the winter, and it is equally a mistake to let them spend the winter crowded together in the seed pots. The easiest and most variable species are I. Douglasiana and I. tenax, and of these hardly any two seedlings are exactly alike.

I. longipetala is another Californian Iris, but this will thrive in the heavier soil of any good garden border, and it is a plant that deserves to be more widely known and grown than appears to be the case at present.

Bulbous Irises, with one exception, like a warm, dry soil and a thorough rest in summer. The exception is I. xiphioides, the misnamed English Iris, which comes from the wet alpine meadows of the Pyrenees, and which is never happy except in cool, moist soil.

All Irises like sun, and the vast majority must have it if they are to flower freely. Our native, I. foetidissima, will, however, flourish in wood-land, and even flower sparsely, and some small species, such as the tiny Japanese, I. gracilipes, and the American I. cristata and I. lacustris, seem to prefer half shade, but it is a mistake to suppose that Irises will flourish and flower in any dark sunless corner of the garden, where all the nourishment is sucked from the soil beneath the rhizomes by the greedy roots of overhanging trees.

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