VARIETY IN FLOWERS OF EARLY SUMMER 21 



Not one word has been said of the iris as a cut flower. But 

 how can I refrain, for now before me stands a jar of pale Italian 

 paste, holding cottage tulip Mrs. Kerrell, a flower of an ele- 

 gance and of a tone of clear pink such as no other tulip possesses, 

 with a blue base which relates it to iris Juniata, its companion 

 in this group (an iris more nearly blue than any of the germanicas 

 that I know), and long sprays of the pearly buds of Deutzia 

 lemoinei. As tulip IVIrs. Kerrell grows old, it seems to take on 

 also a bluish cast, and this is perhaps partly the reason for its 

 beauty used with iris Juniata. 



We have had an odd experience with iris Blue Boy, which is 

 a fine early germanica from Wallace of England. In August of 

 last year we were transplanting as usual. A large root of this 

 was lifted and laid in the upper garden imder a Norway maple. 

 Then it was forgotten. Yesterday, the twenty-third of May, I 

 went to that spot for something, and was amazed to see not 

 only that the plant was alive, but that no less than thirty mag- 

 nificent purple flowers were in full bloom. And this iris had 

 been for nine months, and throughout the winter, on top of the 

 ground! This is the first of my germanicas to bloom, except 

 Mrs. Alan Gray; and to come suddenly upon that in a forgotten 

 corner, hidden by shrubs, with the beauteous bluish-mauve 

 flowers set off by tulip retroflexa in full loveliness beside it, is to 

 rejoice again that those flowers had long since found their way 

 to this garden. 



Somewhere I have seen the following mention of a color- 

 grouping of the iris with other flowers, one that I should like 

 much to try, myself. It was this: Iris Mrs. Neubronner and 

 I. Innocenza, wallflowers before and among them, yellow violas 

 below. The first named iris is of a very deep golden yellow; 

 Innocenza is ivory white ; the wallflowers, with their rich orange 

 and orange-reds and their delicate forms, would give remarkable 



