Early Irises 



sharing its offsets with a few friends whose openly ex- 

 pressed raptures have convinced me it would find a good 

 home and loving care in their gardens. 



I think it is one of the loveliest of Spring flowers, and 

 do not believe it is only that sort of paternal pride vented 

 in one's own seedling, that leads me to believe it is of the 

 colour of a Delphinium Belladonna, and that the bee guide 

 on the fall is just the right shade of apricot-orange to 

 attract any flying insect and please an artistic eye with its 

 colour contrast, producing much the same effect that you 

 get in the deeper colouring of Linaria alpina. 



The same crop of seedlings gave me a tall red-purple 

 form, and yet one more that, so far as I can see, is iden- 

 tical with that sometimes sold as /. reticulata major. 

 These two last flower in the order in which I have 

 placed them, and are both somewhat earlier than the 

 old garden form, which is too well known to need my 

 praise. It is generally recommended that they should be 

 lifted frequently, and just after the leaves have died down, 

 to be stored in dry sand till September. But I found 

 this plan unsatisfactory when I tried it, and prefer to re- 

 plant them just as they are going out of flower. The 

 ground is generally moist enough then to prevent their 

 flagging, and the corms grow larger and stronger for 

 their shift to fresh soil, and also at that time of year 

 one can see just the sort of place and neighbours that 

 will suit them at flowering time better than when the 

 autumn plants are in full swing. If I have missed this 

 golden opportunity I have sometimes lifted them in 

 early August, but have then replanted them within 



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