X 



JUNE 

 IRIS BORDER GARDENS 



Some one has well said that the greatest trouble with our 

 planting of flowers is the stinginess of it. It is largely on 

 this account that the average border garden falls far short 

 of its possible attractiveness: it usually contains a very few 

 plants of many different sorts which fail to harmonize and 

 so fail to give a suggestion of unity. Now the out-door 

 garden should have in it the elements of a picture, and in a 

 picture the first requirement is that of unity. 



A great improvement may easily be brought about in the 

 decorati\'e value of our border gardens by making more 

 special plantings of certain types of flowers. A bed of 

 peonies, of phlox, of Japanese Anemones, of iris, or of 

 almost any of the hardy perennial plants may readily become 

 a feature of extraordinary attraction. 



Perhaps no type of plant is better adapted for use in such 

 hardy border gardens than the iris. These exist in a great 

 variety of special blossoms which differ in the time of bloom- 

 ing and vary greatly in height of plant and in size of flowers. 

 They all, however, have a uniformity of growth that enables 

 one to combine them in the same bed with excellent re- 

 sults. In the following diagram is indicated the planting 

 plan for a simple and inexpensive iris bed which would 

 certainly prove a most attractive feature in the border of any 

 grounds. The back row against the fence or wall or the side 



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