Early Irises 



arranged in the old-fashioned tall champagne glasses with 

 Libertia leaves, but when they are plentiful I like to fill a 

 bowl with some short sprigs of Cypress greenery and 

 spear the Irises into it. 



The deepest coloured variety is known as speciosa, and 

 has narrow leaves and throws its blossoms up well above 

 them, and so is much more showy in the garden than the 

 paler forms, whose broad, arching leaves often hide the 

 flowers a good deal. Also it seldom flowers before 

 February, so that the blossoms can generally open and 

 escape injury better than those of the earlier forms. 

 Later still comes the variety now known as angustifolia, 

 which has also masqueraded under the names of Eliza- 

 bethae, cretensis, and latterly agrostifolia. This last would 

 be a good name for it, as its leaves are very narrow and 

 grassy, but it is possibly a result of copying angustifolia 

 from some indistinct handwriting or worn-out label, as it 

 has no authority that I know of beyond a catalogue or 

 two and labels at shows. Anyway, this narrow-leaved 

 form is a good thing, and when established it flowers very 

 freely, and is a suitable subject for a warm nook in the 

 rock garden or at the foot of a pedestal or stone in a 

 southern exposure. I grow it in both such situations, and 

 during March and April the clumps frequently open halt 

 a dozen or so of their showy flowers at one time. They 

 stand up well among the leaves, and have a dainty, 

 butterfly expression about them as the standards arch 

 outward at a pleasant angle. They vary somewhat in 

 the amount of white markings on the fall, but all of them 

 have far more white than other forms of Iris unguicularis, 

 27 



