CHAPTER III 



ON THE CULTIVATION OF ONCOCYCLUS IRISES 



I. THERE are some things which you have only to 

 stick in the ground and the rest follows with the utmost 

 regularity bud blossom fruit are mere matters of 

 course the end may be taken for granted from the 

 beginning ; but this cannot be said with any truthfulness 

 at all about the subject of these remarks there are all 

 sorts and kinds of ways by which the cultivator may go 

 wrong, and only if the idiosyncrasies of the flowers are 

 consulted will they ever prosper at all ; and yet it 

 does seem to me after handling them for a long time 

 that it is not a case of a "forlorn hope," as some have 

 judged it to be. 



I have known gardeners who have pitched these plants 

 away in exasperation almost in disgust and who have 

 declared that they will never spend any more time or 

 trouble over such ungrateful beings. The truth is that 

 Oncocyclus Irises must be considered to be very exacting 

 creatures indeed they will have what they will have 

 there is seldom any such thing as compromise on their 

 part ; but if you comply with their demands they reward 

 you handsomely for not only as I think is their beauty 

 quite a thing by itself and about this there will be 

 more said hereafter but if they live at all they grow 

 and grow and grow and you soon have very fine plants 

 to use a very familiar expression, it is all with them neck 

 or nothing ; they either fail and then soon after quite 

 pass away or they go on with a good deal of regularity 



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