84 PRESENT-DAY GARDENING 



and to transplant them at once. This early disturbance, it 

 cannot be repeated too often, will do the plants no harm ; 

 in fact they should be all the better for it in the following 

 year, for these comparatively shallow-rooting and fast- 

 growing plants cannot be grown year after year in the 

 same spot without deteriorating, unless they are lifted from 

 time to time and given fresh soil. 



A good effect may be produced in borders by planting 

 late flowering Darwin or Cottage tulips among clumps 

 of such forms of /. germanica as that which is known 

 in England as the type, Amas (macrantha), Kharput, 

 Oriflamme, atropurpurea, or florentina. Only the tallest 

 of the so-called Cottage tulips are suitable for use in this 

 way, but all the Darwins are of sufficient height to throw 

 up their flowers well among the Iris blooms. Not only 

 do these two plants do well together, but they may be 

 left untouched in any well-drained soil for two or three 

 years, after which the whole should be lifted, as soon in 

 the season as the tulip stems can be bent double without 

 their snapping. The Irises can then be replanted in clumps, 

 with possibly some dwarf-growing annual to hide the bare 

 patches between them until the autumn, when the tulips 

 can be replanted early in November. 



Where such an arrangement is adopted, care must be 

 taken that rampant plants, such as perennial Sunflowers, 

 Delphiniums, and above all Michaelmas Daisies, do not 

 encroach upon the Irises, when the latter have become 

 mere clumps of foliage, and thus deprive them of that 

 place in the sun, and of the consequent ripening of the 

 rhizomes, which is essential if the plants are to flower 

 well in the following season. 



