MAKE "THE CITY BEAUTIFUL" 35 



SUBSEQUENT CARE 



Cultivation There is no other desirable flowering plant that 

 requires less care, when once established. Even if planted in 

 the sod, if cared for the first year or two it will thereafter not 

 only maintain itself, but bloom abundantly and increase, without 

 further attention. It is above all others the plant for the lazy 

 man and also for the la for the lady indisposed to any more 

 exertion in the flower garden than is required to gather the blooms. 

 Nevertheless it will well repay whatever care it may receive. 

 Give it ordinary cultivation. In the spring remove the dead 

 leaves, for sightliness. Stir the ground occasionally to prevent a 

 crust from forming, and keep the plants free from grass and 

 weeds 



"Because sweet-flowers are slow and weeds make haste." 

 Shakespeare: King Richard III. 



For best results, after growth starts in the spring an abundance 

 of water should be supplied up to and immediately following 

 flowering, unless the soil is naturally moist. 



The Iris requires a year or two to become established, and the 

 finest flowers are obtained from established clumps which should 

 therefore not be disturbed oftener than necessary. As most of 

 the varieties increase quite rapidly, every five or six years the 

 clumps should be divided. Unless many plants are desired the 

 divisions should not be made very small, or there will be but few 

 flowers the first season. Three or four branches or joints to a 

 division, with a cluster of leaves attached, will usually be found 

 to be most satisfactory. The whole clump may be taken up, 

 divided and, discarding any old dried up or decayed parts, reset 

 as described ante under "How to Plant" A better way is to 

 cut the clurnp iiito portions as it stands in the ground and re- 

 move all but one disturbing that one as little as possible and 

 reset them, and fill with fresh soil the hole from which they were 

 taken. Unless divided the clumps will in time crowd each other, 

 and the individual plants will become matted into a thick mass 

 and will in time exhaust the soil within reach of their roots and 



