My Garden in Spring 



into their hearts are best removed before they rot, and a 

 careful search should be made from time to time for 

 slugs and snails, which are very fond of the tender, juicy 

 buds. By carefully bending the leaves forward from the 

 wall and peering down among the crowns these evil 

 gasteropods may generally be discovered ; but the cater- 

 pillars of the Yellow Underwing and Angleshades Moths 

 are more troublesome to catch. The only successful 

 method is to go out on a mild evening with an acetylene 

 bicycle lamp, which will show up the marauders in their 

 true colours. 



Patience seems to be the only manure these Irises 

 need, poor soil inducing flowering instead of production 

 of leaf, and the older a clump grows the better it flowers, 

 so long as it does not raise itself too much out of the 

 ground to be able to get nourishment ; but I have 

 some old clumps that by pressing their rhizomes against 

 the wall have climbed up it some six or seven inches ; 

 these aspiring individuals flower well, and I respect their 

 ambitious habit so long as the leaves look strong and 

 vigorous and I receive my rent in flowers. 



Last winter we picked about fifty buds a week from 

 the time the frosts had killed off the Asters and outdoor 

 Chrysanthemums until March brought us sufficient 

 Daffodils to keep the dinner-table supplied. As a 

 producer of ver perpetuum during the dullest months of 

 the year I feel sure no outdoor plant can beat Iris 

 unguicularis. 



Next in order as bringers in of Spring among the 

 Irises come the members of that puzzling little group of 

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