CHAPTER III 



Early Irises 



SUPPOSE a wicked uncle who wished to check your gar- 

 dening zeal left you pots of money on condition you grew 

 only one species of plants : what would you choose ? I 

 should settle on Iris ungm'cularis, as in summer one could 

 get whiffs of other folks' roses and lilies and all the dull 

 season enjoy the flowers of this beautiful Iris. It was some 

 twenty-four years ago I first saw it in the gardens at La 

 Mortola. Sir Thomas H anbury parted its forelock of long 

 leaves and displayed a mass of lilac blossoms, and then 

 and there I vowed I must grow it, and grow it well too. 



I had some difficulty in finding out where to get it, 

 and I suppose it was not so well known then as now, as I 

 could hear of no one among my gardening neighbours 

 who could flower it. I was fortunate in getting hold of 

 a good variety for my first plant, and in trying to imitate 

 its warm home at La Mortola, I planted it against the 

 front wall of a peach-house, where a southern exposure and 

 warmth from the water-pipes brought it into flower within 

 a year of planting, and set me to work to get other forms 

 and find further suitable sites for them. So many people 

 complain of its shyness of flowering that I feel bound to 

 give my experiences of it rather fully, hoping to help 

 others thereby. I soon found that the varietal forms in 

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