174 MY GARDEN 



are kept dry in winter. The soil is a mixture of sand 

 and rather heavy loam, but I believe an admixture of 

 clay is more desirable for these bulbs. 



The so-called Spanish and English Irises are quite in- 

 dispensable if we have a spot to suit them. The stem 

 of the Spanish Iris (7. Xiphium) rises stiffly to a height 

 of about eighteen inches and carries two flowers quite 

 conventional in their chaste formality of line. They 

 are so inexpensive that the bulbs may be bought by the 

 thousand, and I know of no investment which insures 

 a greater return in beauty. They are best planted in 

 August that they may send up their narrow, onion-like 

 growth, which seems a sort of guarantee of good faith, 

 before frost. Any dry, sunny border suits them well, 

 but they do not like to be pressed upon by strong grow- 

 ing perennials or robbed by greedy annuals, but after 

 the foliage has gone they do not object to a carpet 

 of such lightly rooting annuals as Sedum coeruleum, 

 lonopsidium acaule, or Gypsophila muralis. When the 

 bulbs become overcrowded it is well to lift and replant 

 them comfortably. 



These flowers have been called the "poor man's 

 Orchid," but rich and poor and all the middle-sized folk 

 between will make no mistake in planting Spanish Irises 

 generously both in a cutting garden, for they are lovely 

 for indoor decoration, and all about the garden in nooks 

 and corners as we like to plant the Daffodils. The white 

 varieties are exquisite, and the great bronze Thunderbolt 



