My Garden in Spring 



an hour or so. They are among the plants that deterio- 

 rate rapidly when out of the ground, so when buying 

 new ones it is as well to get them as early as possible 

 after the bulb lists appear. Although they bloom with 

 the Daffodils, some of the Juno Irises deserve a place 

 among the early ones. They are queer creatures with 

 folded leaves arranged in two ranks, bulbs that produce 

 long storage roots from their base, which it is very diffi- 

 cult to avoid breaking off in planting, and yet most essen- 

 tial to the plant's well-being that they should remain 

 intact, and again they have standards that refuse to stand, 

 but either hang downwards or sprawl out horizontally. I 

 can think of no better word to express such unstandardly 

 conduct unless I draw upon the forceful legends on con- 

 tinental railway carriage windows, and anglicise them into 

 sporgering and hinauslehning. They appear to me to 

 prefer a stiff bit of soil to root into, but to have their 

 bulbous body in something lighter, and unless I fuss over 

 them they do not grow very vigorously. My favourite is 

 the variety of I. persica whose right name is stenophylla, but 

 which often appears as Heldreichii. The combination of 

 its lavender-blue groundwork with the white and deep ame- 

 thyst purple of the tips of the falls is so lovely, that I have 

 not grudged renewing my little stock when bad seasons 

 have brought it low. /. Sindjarensis is more reliable but not 

 so lovely, but its hybrid Sind-pur Amethyst is a gem quite 

 worth the trouble of constant lifting and rebedding in choice 

 soil, even sand and leaf of the best the garden can produce. 

 The most satisfactory here, and capable of being left 

 alone for several seasons, are the forms of /. orchioides 

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