My Garden in Spring 



for the two pale blue forms that open the season for 

 bearded Irises, there is not a true pumila among them. 



Chamaeiris has provided several purple and yellow 

 forms, and /. Reichenbachii others, all of which have un- 

 branched flower stems. /. aphylla gives us innumerable 

 shades with many flowered stems, and under this name are 

 now included the rich purple, blue-bearded plant we used to 

 call /. Benacensis, and that strange, dingy-flowered thing 

 formerly known as /. pumila gracilis. The colour is about as 

 lovely as the waistcoat of a defunct toad, being a pale buff 

 bun-bag shade, mottled irregularly with smoky grey, but it 

 flowers with such freedom that one can hardly see leaves 

 for flowers, and in the afternoon sunlight a length of it 

 planted as an edging lights up in such a charming way that 

 I always enjoy the effect thus produced, especially where 

 the flower-stems fall out over the grass path. It is also 

 good for cutting, for even the youngest buds will open in 

 water, and they are much lighter and more pleasing in 

 colour when opened in a room. The best of this section 

 is a garden-raised plant known as Leander, a really good 

 yellow, and very floriferous ; Bluebeard and Blanche an- 

 nounce their colours in their names, and are good com- 

 panions for Leander. The old blue germanica is a 

 wonderfully useful plant, quite the best tempered and 

 most generous I ever met for dry, overhung, or starved 

 positions, therefore it appears in large bands and masses 

 at the back of these borders round the old Yew trunks, and 

 is a grand bit of colour when in full flower. The purple 

 form known as Kharput does almost as well under this 

 studied neglect, but its flower-stems being taller it is inclined 

 to drive forward towards the light and then to fall over. 

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