For June, 1920 



A PERFECT PERGOLA. 



The illustration has Ijeeii reproduced from a 

 photograph taken in the garden at Xorlh 

 Lodge. Parktovvn, Johannesburg, and affords 

 a good example of what a pergola ought to be. 

 The proportions and manner of Imildin.g are all 

 that could lie desired and the amount of "cloth- 

 ing" provided hits the happy mean so rarely 

 secured for this kind of garden structure. 

 Usually in this country one sees pergolas cither 

 looking bare or heavily over-weighted with 

 creepers and other things. Here a variety of 

 creepers has been chosen and the draped 

 pillars look like the work of an artist. This 

 is where the beautiful form of leaf mosaic 

 makes to us its sure appeal, all sorts of fair_\ 

 lingers beckon when the soft winds blow, and 

 over-head, roses of pale pink and yellow nod 

 their heads and occasionally throw us be- 

 witching glances frotn below the beams. The 

 top beams running the entire length aid tlie 

 perspective ; while the little square base from 

 which each pillar rises, adds greatly to the 

 effect, bridging the gap between stone work 

 and pillar. 



At the bottom of the stone work where it 

 meets the grass on the inner side, lines of prim- 

 roses bring joy to the heart each year, and 

 seem to like their association with the stones 

 In some places on the tops of the walls the 

 owner has had pockets made by the omission 

 of stones. In these, suitable plants are grown 

 and a less harsh and gentle outline is thus 

 obtained when looking across from either side. 



The rounded wall at the end. above the seat, 

 height and forms a most agreeable terminatii 

 alley leading up to it. Here light and shadow in 



2LS 











is just the right Summer form a | 

 m to the green changing all the y 

 the long days of Country Life. 



licture in themselves and one that is ever- 

 ear lhriiu.gh. — South African Gnrdcning and 



JAPANESE IRISES— (L KAEMPFERI). 



WHILE the genus Iris is rich in beautx and variet\ . 

 and affords material for either the amateur, 

 professional, or enthusiast-specialist gardener 

 to revel in for nearly six months of the year, the section 

 above named stands not onl\- pre-eminent of it.v race, but 

 equally so among moisture-loving flowering plants at any 

 season of the year. In a word, the Japanese Iris is 

 unique, whether viewed frtjni the st.-m.li'.oint of the splen- 

 dor of the floral disjjlay and the living i-iictures the flow- 

 ers create in garden scenery, or because of hardiness, or 

 because of the several ways which they may be employed 

 with good results in gardens regardless of their size. 

 This nuich is said advisedly, since it was thought in the 

 past — the idea is less prevalent today — that these plants 

 coifld only be successfully grown at or near the water's 

 edge. The idea was wron.g. and led numbers into plant- 

 ing them in such places regardless of soil. In not a few 

 instances clay of a most uncongenial type surrounds natu- 

 ral water basins, and this the Japanese Iris detests. 

 E(|ually bad, or worse — it was in many instances attended 

 by fatal results — among the earlv misconceptions of the 

 plant's requirements was constant partial submersion in 

 water, the heavy toll paid for so doing quickly telling the 

 intelligent cultivator it was wrong. Twenty-five or more 

 years ago, when many were urging the water-side as 

 the only pos.sible way of growing these Irises, I had 

 them in considerable luxuriance in richly manured field 

 soil, which in Summer time became dust drv many 

 inches deep, a near neighbor growing them equally well 

 in old potting soil in a worked-out gravel pit ; hence it 

 will be seen that the amateur with a solitary bed may 

 score a success equally with the millionaire who appears 

 to possess conditions more approaching the ideal. Pro- 

 fessional cultivators, too, for some years past have real- 

 ized the truth of the above statement, while the fact that 

 the plants lend themselves so well to various j)osition.s in 

 the garden should make of the latter — large or small — a 

 more beautiful place than was possible before the whole 



truth concerning the likes and dislikes of these Irises was 

 revealed. 



True, they are moisture-loving in the highest degree. 

 True, too, that they associate admirably with water areas 

 and are specially adapted for water-side gardening. For 

 this they are ideal. At the same time it should be re- 

 membered that water is not their all-in-all. Equally 

 important is a rich vegetable soil in which the roots can 

 ramify freely; close, tenacious soils they abhor. Then of 

 almost paramount importance, if perennial success is to 

 be ensured, is raising the soil of the waterside planting 

 area a foot or more above water-level, at which height 

 the roots will descend and .get all the moisture the plant 

 requires. It is a far safer plan than the risky one or sub- 

 merging, or even of having the roots continually in wet 

 ground. These, theti, are the things that matter in their 

 cultivation : at once those to adopt and those to avoid. 



The amateur to whom only a solitary bed is perhaps 

 possible should arrange the surface of the bed slightly 

 below the surrounding level, so that during growth and 

 approaching the flowering period an occasional soaking 

 of water may be applied with advantage. An item 

 worthy of committing to memory, too, is that these plants 

 have a voracious appetite, the established clumps form- 

 ing huge mats of fibrous roots: hence a rich soil is inucli 

 to their liking. In the case of li.ght soils I prefer to em- 

 ploy a heavy dressing of cow manure, the cooling efl'ccts 

 of which r;ither than its nianurial value I find excellent 

 for the plants. Incorporruing some that is well dt'cayed 

 with the soil, a further layer a foot deep is good as a 

 retainer of moisture and in other ways. 



These Japanese Irises provide a rare fea.st of color 

 beauty in the garden — white, blue of many degrees, rich 

 violet. crim.son. purple, rose and other shades which defy 

 description. .\nd while the color effect appeals strongly, 

 l)crhaps even greater do the waving picturesque flowers 

 api)eal — flowers comparable to nothing but themselves, 

 whose beauty no pen-picture could pos.sibly portray. — 

 E. II. Jknkins in Tlir Ciardrii (English). 



