August 21, 1909 



HORTICULTURE, 



S65 



The Iris as a Cut Flower 



If cut just before opening, and placed in water, irises 

 often have a delicacy they do not have in the open. 

 They continue to blossom a long time. One will bloom 

 and remain open for days, then it wanes and another 

 takes its place, and so the succession is kept up. If you 

 are to ship them don't wait for full bloom, for then they 

 are so fragile they are easily marred. We have been 

 surprised at their adaptability as cut flowers. Often 

 they have been thrown on the cellar floor just as they 

 commenced flowering, and they would keep right on 

 with their work for a week as though not detached at 

 all. First the oldest flower would gradually fade, and 

 then another would come out, and this would pass away, 

 and there would be another recruit to fall into line. 

 When they are to be shipped some distance they are 

 gathered first before opening, and the most forward of 

 the buds are wound lightly with raSia which is removed 

 when they reach their destination, when they open beau- 

 tifully. 



It is astonishing, however, with what caution and 

 reluctance people take to new things. The Iris is one 

 of the most resplendent flowers for Decoration Day, 

 fully equal if not superior to anything else offered. Yet 

 notwithstanding their ravishing beauty they are reject- 

 ed. People move in ruts. A few years ago the peony 

 was ignored. It was nothing Init a "piny" — no one 

 wanted it. Years passed by, and finally their beauty 

 and fragrance won a place, and people cannot get 

 enough for Decoration Day. If they can't get roses, 

 carnations, and peonies, the}- consider themselves 

 wronged, and the florist has abused them by not furnish- 

 ing them their pet flowers. 



A lady goes to buy flowers for a friend's grave. Eoses 

 and carnations are gone. But here are the glorious 

 Chalcedonias, the fragrant and splendid Palidas and 

 the exquisite Elegans of elysian beauty — the fairest 

 flowers that ever opened their petals to the sun, sur- 

 passing by all odds anything offered, but the lady says, 

 "Yes, they are pretty, but I wanted carnations," and 

 Bhe goes out with a long drawn sigh and tells her 

 friends "I couldn't get any flowers today." A tear 

 trembles on her eyelashes as she says with most pathetic 

 voice, "The grave of my dearest friend must go tin- 

 adorned." If you would hand her one of the most ex- 

 quisite flowers plucked from Paradise itself, no mat- 

 ter how alluring its loveliness, how exquisite in form or 

 attractive in fragrance she would reject it because it was 

 not a carnation or a rose. We have seen the most 

 charming bouquets of columbines of red, white and blue 

 put up in the most tasteful manner for soldiers' graves 

 rejected for some inferior, insignificant things because 

 they were called roses and carnations. This is rather a 

 cruel snub for some of the most charmingly dressed 

 visitors that ever came to earth. 



Instead of eternally traveling in the ruts and confin- 

 ing one's self to two or three favorites it is better to 

 reach out and give a cordial welcome to all — to the whole 

 procession of beauty. 



We have seen beautiful bouquets of pyrethrums with 

 their cheerful and winsome smile rejected because "I 

 am not acquainted with them." 



It will not, however, be many years before irises will 

 find their way into the admiration of those who love the 

 beautiful. Their long season of blooming from April 

 to August, their surpassing beauty and fragrance will 

 give them a prominent place. The finer sorts are yet 

 rare and by the time they are raised in quantities to 

 meet the demand they will receive cordial reception. At 

 first the peony had to combat the reputation of the old- 



fasliioned "piny"^ — people remembering the ill smelling 

 flowers of their mothers and could not believe the mod- 

 ern ones were as fragrant as the rose. 



Talk to them of the Iris which is woven with the 

 deft skill of Him who put the garments on the sun and 

 painted the petals of the violet and the rose and they 

 say, "Oh, yes, we know them. They are nothing but 

 flags. They used to grow by the thousands in the 

 swamp back of our house." They ignore the 169 other 

 kinds which didn't grow in their swamp, with the 

 numerous hybrids which have gathered all the tints of 

 earth and sky into their radiant garments. 



York, Neiraska. 



d C ^f^x/rv^tm 



Ixoras 



Among all the greenhouse flowering shrubs the genus 

 Ixora deserves to take a high rank. Their fine deep 

 green foliage, and fine attractive flowers, together with 

 their good keeping qualities, deserve better recognition 

 from plant lovers than they get. The natives of Mala- 

 bar where some of the species are found, thought so well 

 of them, in bygone days, that they tendered them as an 

 offering to their god Ixora, hence the name. It may be, 

 that the memory of the humid stove heat that they used 

 to be grown in, in the old country, deters plantsmen 

 here from growing them much. But in this country, 

 in the summer, they do nicely in a slightly shaded ordi- 

 nary greenhouse with plenty of air on it, and in winter 

 I have seen them carried over in a temperature of 50 to 

 55 degrees. 



Ixoras, are natives, mostly, of tropical Asia and Af- 

 rica, but travelers tell us that they can now be found in 

 nearly every tropical clime where the European has 

 taken up his abode. The following garden hybrids and 

 seedlings are among the best that are grown. I. Chel- 

 soni, with flowers of bright orange-salmon, shaded with 

 pink. I. Colei, a very free flowering variety, with large 

 white flowers, a strong vigorous grower. I. decora, 

 flowers yellow, flaked with rosy-crimson. I Dixiana, 

 undoubtedly one of the best grown; its dark orange flow- 

 ers being produced freely makes it a handsome exhi- 

 bition plant. It has a very vigorous constitution. Some 

 of the older frequenters of Massachusetts Horticultural 

 Society may remember how well Wm. Martin, gardener 

 for X. T. Kidder, used to gi'ow this variety. I. Fraseri, 

 with leaves of a rich dark green, free and vigorous in 

 growth, and brilliant salmon colored flowers. I. Pil- 

 grimii, a fine hybrid, I believe from I. Williamsii, a 

 good one for those w'ho have not got control of much 

 heat, doing well in a much lower temperature than some 

 of the others. Flowers are of a bright orange-scarlet 

 shaded with crimson. I. profusa, a fine exhibition va- 

 riety with rosy salmon colored flowers, freely produced. 

 I. Williamsii, a very free grower, flowers large, and of a 

 reddish salmon color, one of the handsomest I have seen. 



Ixoras are easily propagated. A piece of moderately 

 firm wood, cut between the joints, with two leaves at- 

 tached, inserted in sand, in a temperature of 70 degrees, 

 will root in. a few weeks. After they are rooted I find 

 they grow very freely in a fibrous loam out of which all 

 the fine material has been shaken. I have seen others 

 do them well in peat, with a good mixture of silver sand 

 throitgh it. The above described cutting will generally 

 start into two leads, and if rooted in spring will flower 

 in summer, forming, if desired, cunning little plants, in 

 two and- two and one-half inch pots, which look very 

 pretty, scattered around a dinner table, which has one 



