SOME IRIS PROBLEMS 95 



sun reaches the rhizomes, or the plants have deteriorated 

 through being left so long in one place that the soil in 

 contact with their roots is exhausted, or else some devotee 

 of " no-bare-earth-anywhere " gardening has carpeted the 

 rhizomes themselves as well as the soil between them with 

 mossy Saxifrage, Arenaria, or Acaena, with the result that 

 the sun is no longer able to reach and ripen the rhizomes, 

 which after all are the most essential and permanent part 

 of the plant. At first the Iris leaves may look well rising 

 from their green carpet, but in the following season the 

 flowers will most probably be looked for in vain. If those 

 three conditions are avoided, /. germanica and its allies 

 cannot be placed among shy-flowering Irises, provided 

 always that they are not grown in such heavy clay that 

 drainage is practically non-existent a few inches below the 

 surface. This last condition is most likely to be present 

 in town gardens, especially in London, where the subsoil 

 is less energetically and constantly worked than should be 

 the case under more ideal conditions in the country. 

 Rhizomatous Irises are healthier, on the whole, in a heavy 

 soil than in poor sand, but the drainage must be good, or 

 the rootlets will rot away, and the plants remain stationary 

 instead of growing. 



CHAPTER XVI 



SOME IRIS PROBLEMS 



IN case this small book falls into the hands of any one of 

 an inquiring turn of mind, who cannot rest until he has 



