JULY 135 



again in July. The smaller the garden, the more 

 essential are these plants for people who like having 

 flowers to pick ; but I warn everyone against those 

 terrible inventions of seedsmen, the Dwarf Antirrhinums ; 

 they have all the attributes of a dwarf, and are impish 

 and ugly. The flower is far too large for the stalk, and 

 they are, to my mind, entirely without merit. July is 

 the time I take up both the English and the Spanish 

 Irises, which makes them do ever so much better. The 

 English Irises are best planted again at once, only taking 

 off the small bulbs. The Spanish Irises are best dried in 

 the sun and replanted in September. In both cases the 

 small bulbs are planted in rows in the kitchen garden ; 

 they take up little room, and in this way the stock is 

 increased. In our soil, unless treated in this way, they 

 dwindle, cease flowering, and ultimately disappear. I 

 lost many from not knowing this in my early gardening 

 days, when I was certainly green in judgment. The 

 Spanish Iris likes a dry place in full sun ; the English 

 Iris does best in half-shade, and likes moisture if it can 

 get it, but flowers well without; the leaves are what 

 suffer most from dryness long, succulent, moisture- 

 loving things that they are. 



July 17th. We have had a most unusually hot dry 

 summer, and to go into the garden is absolute pain to me, 

 for all the trouble and labour of the year seem more or 

 less wasted. Plants are miserably forced into bloom, to 

 go off almost immediately ; and it is little consolation to 

 know a week's rain will make many plants beautiful 

 again, for the especial beauty of early summer is over. 

 July and August are always trying months here. The 

 soil is so very light, and one must pay the penalty ; 

 even the heavy soils, I am told, are suffering much 

 this year. 



One ought, too, to study with great interest and take 



