18 



THE GARDEN MAGAZINE 



August, 1917 



Moerheim's Larkspur is 

 well described as a white 

 counterpart of Capri 



f t h e sin- 

 gles, Capri is a 

 very tall grower 

 with large flat 

 blossoms of the 

 most delicate 

 sky blue. It is 

 a much better 

 grower than Per- 

 simmon, which it 

 otherwise re- 

 sembles. Next in 

 depth of color is 

 Mrs. Br union, 

 whose blue is also 

 more intense, with 

 a lustre like blue 

 enamel. This vari- 

 ety is of dwarfer 

 growth (about three 

 feet) with very 

 wide, branching 

 spikes of bloom and 

 particularly well- 

 formed flowers. 

 Next comes Theo- 

 dora, to me the 

 most beautiful and 

 distinct of single Delphiniums. Its graceful 

 spikes of flowers are of the richest corn-flower 

 blue, with an unusual soft brown centre. This 

 latter together with its soft and finely cut sage 

 green foliage help to give it a different quality 

 from any other Larkspur, but its chief glory is 

 its color; massed, it gives an effect that cannot 

 be approached for richness and depth. La- 

 martine is the darkest of all; its very deep 

 navy blue, set off with a pure white eye, is very 

 striking, though not so harmonious as Theo- 

 dora. The variety Moerheimi has been so 

 lauded that we might reasonably be prepared 

 for a slight disappointment, but happily noth- 

 ing of the sort is in store for us. As the origi- 

 nator has stated, it is the exact counterpart, 

 in form and habit, of Capri, but in color a 

 pure white, with a cream white eye. The 

 flower is precisely like a much magnified white 

 Chinese Larkspur, which sets one speculating 

 as to its parentage. Those unfortunate gar- 

 deners who have difficulty in growing Lilium 

 Candidum should not fail to avail themselves 

 of Moerheimi as the best of substitutes, for 

 grouping with the blue Larkspurs. 



I must confess to a rather decided prejudice 

 against Double Delphiniums. As a rule, they 

 strike me as being altogether too showy; 

 "over-dressed," one might say, So I shall 

 leave their extended description to some one 

 more sympathetic to their charms. I must 

 say a good word, however, for the excellence of 

 Mrs. Creighton and Zuster Lugton as cut 

 flowers. Both these varieties are in shades 

 of very deep blue t and violet, which, indoors, 

 take on a peculiarly luminous effect, like bits 

 of old stained glass. Belladonna Semi-plenum, 

 as its name might suggest, escapes all the usual 

 faults of the double kinds; and for this variety 

 I have nothing but praise. Its loose semi- 

 double flowers are of a slightly deeper blue 

 han Capri, with a little dash of lilac on each 

 petal. This does not "mud" the color in the 

 least as one might expect; at a distance it is 

 entirely invisible, and close at hand it only 

 gives the flower an added charm. 



Modern Irises That Outclass the Old 



TT WILL be well to consider the Irises in 

 A detail at this time especially as their plant- 

 ing time is at hand whereas the other subjects 

 can wait a month, and better indeed, some 

 perennials stay in the catalogues year after year 



with little or no change or improvement. But 

 others, more plastic in the hands of the plant 

 breeder (or perhaps merely more popular with 

 the public), are being constantly developed. 



In the case of the German Iris, this develop- 

 ment has been especially marked. 



As the usual story runs, a majority of the 

 newer Irises were appreciated in England and 

 the continent long before they reached this 

 country. Nevertheless, since the introduc- 

 tion by one of our largest nurseries of the new 

 Goos & Koenemann seedlings, shortly after 

 they were first disseminated abroad, the list 

 of available European novelties has grown 

 steadily longer, until to-day practically every 

 progressive nursery catalogues at least a 

 few. And a new impetus to the growing of 

 the newer Irises has undoubtedly been given 

 to the American flower gardeners by Mr. B. 

 H. Farr, who, since 1910, has been sending 

 out his own seedlings at the rate of four or 

 five a year. That Mr. Farr has been almost 

 without a rival in the American field may 

 seem a bit strange, considering how easy a 

 plant the Iris is to experiment with. 



One of the most striking characteristics o 

 a majority of the newer Irises is the large size 

 and great substance of their blooms. The 

 massive form of the pallida and early-flowering 

 germanica types predominate, and no doubt 

 this has been secured by using these types as 

 seed parents to be crossed with the smaller, 

 but often more brilliantly or richly colored 

 variegata and squalens sections. This com- 

 bination of brilliant coloring and large size 

 is particularly noticeable in the Goos & Koe- 

 nemann novelties. One might easily imagine 

 that four at least of these Irises are descended 

 from a single seed parent, even from a single 

 pod, so closely are they related in their general 

 scheme of coloring: white or yellow standards, 

 and broad falls of some purple shade, with wide 

 light colored margins: 



Rhein Nixe has pure white standards and 

 deep violet-blue falls, with broad white mar- 

 gins; Loreley has the same violet-blue falls, 

 but margined cream color, while the standards 

 are a light lemon yellow. Princess Victoria 

 Louise repeats the same color scheme as Lore- 

 ley, but with falls of a light reddish-purple 

 In Nibelungen the standards are of a clouded 



•ft.'*s" 



A- 



The Monkshoods in Sparks 's 

 and Wilson's varieties bloom 

 from June to October 



The Milk-flowered Ragweed is really useful for mass effects 

 of white foam in late summer (Artemisia lactiflora) 



fawn-yellow; the 

 same shade margins 

 the falls, which are 

 a deep purple. None 

 of these varieties 

 is particularly 

 subtle or harmoni- 

 ous in coloring, but 

 all have an attrac- 

 tive freshness and 

 brilliancy, and are 

 not too garish to 

 combine easily with 

 Irises of similar 

 types. Of the four, 

 Rhein Nixe and 

 Princess Victoria 

 Louise are perhaps 

 the most desirable. 

 Two other Goos 

 & Koenemann seed- 

 lings are of a differ- 

 ent type. Pfaue- 

 nauge, or Peacock's 

 r .ye, is a name that 

 raises high antici- 

 pations, but to my 

 mind the plant is 

 comparatively dis- 

 appointing; very 

 dwarf, not large in 

 flower, and though 

 distinct, too somber in color to be pleasing. 

 Iris King (Iriskoenig), however, is a magnifi- 

 cent flower, one of the finest of all in its depth 

 and richness of coloring. The bloom is large 

 and widely expanded, the standards a fawn- 

 yellow, of unusual quality, the falls a deep 

 maroon-red, of peculiar velvetiness of texture 

 with a narrow margin of deep yellow. This 

 same variety, by the way, is sometimes seen 

 in English lists under the name of King of 

 Irises, and in French catalogues as " Reine 

 des Iris." This last a rather amusing per- 

 version. 



Certainly the French are quite able to stand 

 on their own merits as raisers of new Iris, when 

 they have produced such splendid sorts as 

 Alcazar, Archeveque, Oriflamme, Monseig- 

 neur, Prosper Laugier, and Edouard Michel. 

 None of these, strange to say, is the creation 

 of M. Victor Lemoine, whose name has been 

 long associated with the most wonderful im- 

 provements in both herbaceous plants and 

 shrubs. 



The first three varieties mentioned above 

 are of the early flowered germanica type, and 

 in coloring are related to such well-known 

 kinds as Amas, Kharput, and the common, 

 but by-no-means-to-be-despised, " Blue Flag." 

 All three are of robust growth, with immense 

 blooms that give a particularly imposing 

 effect in the garden. 



Alcazar has standards of a light dull violet 

 and falls of deep purple, flushed and veined 

 bronze toward the base — a somber yet strik- 

 ing coloring, that might well deserve the name 

 "Nuee d'Orage," really the title of another 

 French introduction, said to be equally fine, 

 but which I have not yet seen in bloom. 

 Archeveque has a brighter, and to me a richer 

 and more pleasing coloring, with plum-colored 

 standards and very deep-glowing purplish- 

 plum falls, suggesting the petals of a pansy in 

 their extreme velvetiness of texture. Some gar- 

 dener of our middle Atlantic states, where the 

 blooming periods of Irises and late 1 ulips over- 

 lap, should try combining this magnificent Iris 

 with that equally magnificent Tulip Walter 

 T. Ware. Unfortunately that gardener will 

 have to be a person of considerable means, if 



