IRIS 209 



drainage. Then get sound young crowns of the Iris, put 

 them in and leave them patiently alone, only taking care 

 to keep them clean of weeds and grass — a companionship 

 that the haughty creature hates. On the question of 

 moisture I am not inclined to be Rhadamanthine ; in my 

 own moist climate I have not specially troubled to keep 

 the Irises supplied with special extra moisture, though, in 

 both gardens, my tracts of Iris Kaempferi lie in and out 

 of the bog. If the soil is heavy and rich, almost enough 

 has been done : the roots are secure against starvation 

 and drought. And my own suggestion would be that 

 more harm is done to Iris Kaempferi in England by over- 

 attention in the matter of water than in any other way. 

 Grow it in very cool, rich, heavy soil, open to the sun, 

 and leave it undisturbed. Then, provided your climate 

 supplies a certain amount of rain — especially in early 

 summer — you should do well. And, of course, if your 

 climate be fatally dry, you will have to supply some 

 artificial moisture. But not, I advise, too much, nor too 

 persistent. People who see a plant blooming in a bog 

 are too apt to conclude that it requires soaking wet all 

 through the year ; as a matter of fact many, if not most, 

 bog-plants enjoy their season of comparative dryness. 



Few cultivated plants have a wider range of colour 

 than the Japanese Iris — ranging, as it does, from the 

 creamiest pure white, through every shade of mauve, 

 purple, and imperial violet, to a blue so intense as almost 

 to verge on azure. But I would — this as a matter of 

 personal taste, not of doctrine, and therefore not entailing 

 thirty-nine distinct damnations if you trip upon it — 

 that you exercise care in your choice of Japanese Irises. 

 Do not buy job lots, do not buy unnamed sorts, or named 

 sorts without description. For there are many double 

 and semi-double varieties, and there are also very many 

 mottled, splotched, splashed, streaky forms — even more 



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