IN MY LADY'S GARDEN 



terrace provide flowers throughout the winter ; but two other 

 clumps planted on a raised border of richer soil, although 

 looking extremely healthy, scarcely produce any flowers at 

 all, and are to be removed to the dry, poor soil of the 

 terrace in September. In planting irises (whether in the 

 garden or in pots) it is well to remember that they require 

 to be kept fairly dry for a time, until they have established 

 themselves. 



A new group of hybrids (for which we are largely in- 

 debted to the patient work of the late Sir Michael Foster 

 and Mr. C. von Tubergen) are called Iris regelio-cyclus, 

 having for their parent-plants Iris korolkowi and others of 

 the Regelia section, and various members of the oncocycli, 

 those delicate and disappointing plants, which can rarely be 

 induced to flourish in our climate. 



But the hybrid irises thus produced have constitutions of 

 the strongest, and present but few difficulties in their cultiva- 

 tion, so that they are far more desirable acquisitions than 

 the onco-cyclus group, for they grow strongly and increase 

 in strength and beauty year by year, instead of dwindling and 

 disappearing, as their progenitors are apt to do. 



But they object to stagnant moisture about their roots, 

 especially during the cold season, and must be kept fairly 

 dry from September until March ; whilst they do best when 

 planted at the foot of a south wall on a well-drained terrace 

 of light gravel soil, which should be intermixed with charcoal 

 in small lumps and a sprinkling of bone-meal, for a certain 

 amount of lime appears to be necessary for these irises. 



They can be protected without difficulty by means of a 

 spare frame-light, which should be fixed in a slanting position 

 over their roots during the autumn and winter, allowing the 

 air to have free access at the ends of the glass, which should 

 shunt the rain or snow away, and will be a slight protection 

 from the frost also. Treated in this way they produce an 

 increasing number of blossoms yearly, which open about the 

 middle of May. Iris regelio-cyclus Psyche has large blossoms 

 borne in pairs on stems about 18 inches high, the blooms 

 being in creamy white, thickly veined with maroon, the falls 



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