1 6 THE BOOK OF THE IRIS 



is favourable if only other things be right. I would 

 recommend any one who lives in such parts of the 

 world as Westmorland or Cumberland to take up 

 with Cypripedium spectabile or Myosotidium nobile (if it be 

 hardy enough), rather than to think of growing Iris 

 Lorteti or Iris iberica among his treasures. 



II. Another point to be insisted on is that these Irises 

 must be grown in frames or, at any rate, they must 

 have a shelter of some sort not during the winter, but 

 rather the summer months. The reason is this : soon 

 after they have blossomed and much too soon for their 

 own good they will grow again in this country if no 

 protection is offered they come, for the most part, 

 from very hot regions of the earth, and when they die 

 down they are baked hard by the burning rays of the 

 sun, and for long weeks and months together all chance of 

 growth is denied to them. But this is the very thing which 

 is best and most suitable to their case ; perfect rest is 

 enforced, and for a long period of time they remain quite 

 quiet, and have no thought of movement at all. And let 

 us contrast this with what would happen here in any 

 ordinary year. Some passing thunderstorm and rain, 

 which is so frequent in July, may flood the whole country 

 round, and though soon afterwards the land may be dried 

 up again, the Irises will have begun to grow, and great 

 harm has been done to them. It is, therefore, absolutely 

 necessary to put some covering over their heads soon 

 after they have blossomed, so as to enforce rest upon 

 them at all events, it is necessary to do this unless an 

 alternative plan be adopted, which I do not like at all. 

 I refer to what is called the taking-up system, which may 

 be followed if there is nothing better to offer, but for 

 which I do not care myself. According to this treatment, 

 when the Irises have blossomed and the foliage has died 

 down, the rhizomes are dug up out of the ground, and 

 are put on the greenhouse shelf till the time for planting 



