2OO Tall Bearded Iris 



larvae escape detection and reach the moth stage, 

 the egg laying stage. In the case of a small Iris bed, 

 if any eggs are laid they can easily be disposed of: 

 Soon after the first of November remove all debris 

 from the bed; cut off all the leaves, new and old, just 

 above the rhizome cutting underneath the soil if 

 necessary, even if a few of the buds on the rhizome 

 are thereby destroyed ; remove and burn the debris 

 and leaves. If the bed is of considerable extent this 

 method may not be practicable, but burning it over, 

 using due care not to make too hot a fire, will be 

 just as effectual. After the forepart of November, or 

 early in the spring before growth has started, selecting 

 a day when the bed is comparatively dry, scatter over 

 the bed a little light stuff (as, dry straw or grass) and 

 start a fire on the windward side. The fire will sweep 

 quickly over the bed and destroy the eggs on all the 

 leaves not too wet to burn. 



Experiments: Many years ago a single root of 

 Mme. Chereau had been planted in the lawn at Stager 

 Place and left to grow as it might, and it became a 

 matted clump five or six feet in diameter. After a 

 time many of the rhizomes reached the surface, and 

 from time to time those in the inner portions of the 

 clump became mere shells which gradually dried up 

 and disappeared, and their places became occupied by 

 new growths following the same course. Some grass 

 grew scatteringly among the rhizomes. No part of 

 the clump had ever been troubled by insect or disease, 

 but merely as an experiment, to ascertain what the 

 effect would be on the rhizomes, early in 1919, before 



