COLOUR IN MY GARDEN 



naked scapes well above the rosettes of dark green 

 foliage. 



Of course the June pictures having Irises as the basis of 

 their beauty are many, for the so-called "German" Iris is 

 the flower par excellence for our American gardens and gains 

 steadily in favour. No other so staunchly braves the 

 brutal eccentricities of our climate, giving us unblemished 

 foliage and flawless petals though summer drought and del- 

 uge beset it; though in winter a temperature plying violently 

 between the zero point and summer heat harry its needed 

 rest. The temptation is to fill our gardens with this sturdy, 

 beautiful flower, to enjoy to the full the resplendent period 

 of its festival, and to rest content for the remainder of the 

 season in the gracious memory of those June days. We are, 

 moreover, being encouraged in this course, for from out the 

 Green Work Shops of the world issues a bewildering pro- 

 cession of new Irises in the most enchanting furbishings and 

 all the wondrous colours that can be imagined. 



In the English Country Life for June 24, 1917, Mr. Eden 

 Phillpotts writes, "Man has availed himself of the great laws 

 of evolution in mightier matters than the Iris, but in no 

 theatre of his unsleeping efforts has he created purer 

 beauty or wakened for flower lovers a truer joy than among 

 the bearded Irises of June." Truly this is the great day of 

 the Flower-de-luce, of which John Parkinson, thorough-going 

 gardener and devout flower-worshipper, wrote three hundred 

 years ago "for his excellent beautie and rarietie deserveth 

 first place." So the German Iris is after all an old friend, 

 but what would John Parkinson say could he see to what 

 grand estate it is risen? 



109 



