160 MY GARDEN 



Yunnan in China. It is a desirable plant, but 

 demands copious moisture. Mine grows with his 

 feet actually in the water. 



The white and cream-yellow pyramids of I. orien- 

 talis need merely be mentioned. This great iris rises 

 five feet high, and is a pleasant sight in my bog 

 basin during June. This year, when I counted upon 

 a worthy picture, it was shy and bloomed but 

 sparingly, though, as a rule, I have thirty to forty 

 spikes in flower together upon it. The giant variety 

 of orientalis is said to go six feet high, and must be 

 a great spectacle when well established. The plant 

 is more often called ochroleuca, and it comes from 

 Syria. 



Iris Grant-Dumi, I think, suffers under its rather 

 trying name, and is a shy flowerer, while tenax also 

 fails here from my fault, probably, rather than its 

 own. Now, in wet peat, it is promising well. 



I keep the great family of the bearded irises until 

 the last. It is the largest of all, and, upon the whole, 

 the easiest to grow. Pumila comes first, and late 

 March generally brings the first dwarf purples, while 

 the yellows, lilacs, and that curious silver-grey pumila, 

 known as "gracilis," follow swiftly. With me they 

 increase and thrive on a ledge of my white rockery. 

 The flowers need no special description, but are all 

 pretty. The variety Italica blooms with me at the 

 same time as the dwarfer sorts. I gathered fine 

 plants of it one March in North Italy, where its 

 purple spattered a little conduit upon the side of a 

 hill. Round about spread undergrowth of rosemary, 



