i8 PRESENT-DAY GARDENING 



a display of /. alata in November, December, and January. 

 These freshly imported bulbs, that have been thoroughly 

 ripened in the heat of the southern sun, can be relied upon 

 to flower well, especially if they can be obtained with their 

 fleshy roots more or less intact. Bulbs without these roots 

 should be refused, for the resultant plants will be weak and 

 puny, and probably unable to develop their flowers. They 

 do fairly well in deep pots, but it is not an Iris that readily 

 lends itself to forcing. After flowering either in the open or 

 in pots, the plants may as well be thrown away, for it is 

 almost impossible so to ripen off the growth that sound 

 bulbs are formed for the succeeding year. With careful 

 nursing the bulbs can possibly be brought on to flowering 

 size in about two years' time, but is it worth the trouble 

 involved, since success is always uncertain ? 



The Eastern Mediterranean species, /. palcestina, is an 

 even worse offender in this respect ; its bulbs are weaker 

 than those of /. alata, and even fresh bulbs cannot all be 

 relied upon to flower. 



As to the actual flowers, those of /. alata are usually of 

 a deep blue-purple, and should be of large size, about four 

 inches or more across. The breadth of the conspicuously 

 winged falls is some compensation for the minuteness of the 

 horizontal "standards." White-flowered forms of the Iris 

 are not infrequently found, and there is also obtainable a 

 form called marginata, in which the deep blue falls have a 

 distinct, light edge. In /. palcestina the flowers are smaller 

 and vary greatly in colour, from a fairly deep blue through 

 turquoise to green and greenish-yellow. 



In Eastern Asia Minor there occur several forms of a 

 small and wonderfully beautiful Iris, called I.persica, which at 



