90 PRESENT-DAY GARDENING 



continue to live in dark, shady corners, only to be blamed 

 because they cannot there ripen their rhizomes sufficiently 

 to produce flowers. Again, that most murderous of garden 

 institutions, the herbaceous border, in which, according to 

 its devotees, no gleam of the soil must be allowed to appear, 

 is fatal to many Irises. They cannot be expected to ripen 

 their growth if they are choked throughout the late summer 

 by "carpeting" plants, and then transplanted late in the 

 autumn, when the borders are renovated and tidied up 

 for the winter. If gardeners would only realise that much 

 trouble may be saved by shifting Irises when they have 

 only just finished flowering, or even when actually in 

 bloom, far fewer flowers and plants would be sacrificed. 

 The reason for this protest against autumnal transplanta- 

 tion is obvious to any one who has ever taken the trouble 

 to examine the root system of an Iris. The roots seem 

 to grow to their full length unbranched, and it is only when 

 the tips cease to grow down into the soil that the upper 

 parts begin to send out the fine rootlets on which the plant 

 depends for its nourishment. To ensure success, then, in 

 transplanting Irises, they should be shifted in time for the 

 main roots to grow down uninjured into the soil, where 

 they will then be anchored, long before winter arrives, 

 by the branching lateral rootlets. If the rhizomes are 

 disturbed at a late period, the roots obtain a very 

 slender hold, if any, on the ground, and alternations of 

 frost and thaw in winter may lift them out of the soil 

 altogether. 



Another advantage of this early transplantation will 

 appeal even to those whose main object in gardening is 

 the production of colour schemes in their borders. It is 



