August, 1918 



THE GARDEN MAGAZINE 



13 



placed conveniently near the greenhouse 

 and should be stacked so that the rains 

 do not leach the good qualities from the 

 soil. 



For forcing, vegetables should be considered 

 in two broad classes; I, those that are sown in 

 pans or boxes and transplanted to the benches 

 after they have made considerable growth, 

 including cauliflower, cucumbers, eggplant, 

 lettuce, peppers, and tomatoes; 2, those 

 that are sown directly into the benches 

 where they are to mature: bush limas, 



beets, carrots, Swiss chard, parsley, peas, 

 spinach and New Zealand spinach. 



It is quitenecessarythatdrainagebeprovided 

 for seeds started in boxes. Do this by placing 

 about one inch of cinders or broken flower 

 pots in the bottom, over that a little moss 

 and then about one inch of good soil that has 

 been run through a coarse screen. This 

 should be firmed and made perfectly smooth. 

 Scatter seeds evenly on the surface and cover 

 about twice their diameter with soil. Then 

 water carefully. Crops that require suc- 



cessional sowing (cauliflower, lettuce, and 

 cucumbers) should be sown in small quan- 

 tities, the successional sowings timed so as to 

 give a continuous supply. Eggplants, peppers, 

 and tomatoes are continuous bearers and but 

 one sowing is required for the entire season's 

 supply. When the seeds have germinated they 

 should be watered carefully to prevent damp- 

 ing off, and when they have made their first 

 character leaf should be transplanted into 

 thumb pots, and later transferred into larger 

 pots before they are permanently benched. 



New Irises for the American Garden b 



Y. MORRISON 



Reviewing Some of the Home Productions that are Likely to Displace Old Timers from Abroad 



IN THE August, 191 7, issue of The 

 Garden Magazine, Mr. Thomas gave 

 notes on some of the "new" Irises. As 

 one who has been growing Irises for some 

 years, I should like to offer some differences 

 of opinion and to make various additions. 



In the last few years all of the Goos & 

 Koenemann seedlings have had a place in my 

 garden and I believe that Mr. Thomas is 

 correct for the most part in his final judgments 

 of them. I do object, however, to the inclu- 

 sion of Nibelungen in the group "of an attrac- 

 tive freshness and brilliancy." No Iris of its 

 coloring, which is distinctly clouded, could be 

 that; yet the fact remains that it is a very 

 charming flower. Two desirables of the 

 group that appeared at the time of the intro- 

 duction of the others, he fails to mention. 

 These are Mars, an improved Gajus, not to 

 be confounded with the Intermediate of the 

 same name, and Fro. This latter is a favorite 

 of mine because of its fine form and brilliant 

 coloring. The standards are a gold color and 

 the falls are a particularly telling and vivid 

 shade of reddish chestnut. The flower is not 

 large and the coloring is not absolutely new 

 but the entire plant is of a much better stand- 

 ard than any of its near fellows. 



And this inference brings me to the chief 

 point that I wish to make in regard to the 

 "new" Irises: that I believe that the Irises that 

 we know to-day will be, to a very large extent, 

 replaced by a new set of varieties within a 

 very short time. The introduction of the two 

 species Iris trojana 

 and Iris cypriana has 

 made possible forthe 

 hybridizer a newline 

 of development. 

 The results already 

 have been extraor- 

 dinarily good but 

 they will, in time, be 

 better for the stand- 

 ards will rise as time 

 goes on. 



Parentage in a 

 group as involved in 

 crosses as is the 

 group known as the 

 Bearded Irises is a 

 matter difficult to 

 record and it may 

 happen that in some 

 cases the varieties 

 named are not cor- 

 rectly placed, for 

 when one must de- 

 pend upon the out- 

 ward appearance of 

 the varieties it may 

 easily happen that 

 mistakes are made. 

 In what follows 



Queen Caterina. an Amer- 

 ican raised seedling of lav- 

 ender violet. 



therefore the groupings are made with a 

 certain reservation. 



The introductions from Mr. Farr were very 

 well covered for the most part in the article 

 referred to, but personally I regret that Rose 

 Unique was dismissed so briefly and that the 

 older Juniata should be so little praised. Both 

 are excellent. Quaker Lady is very pleasant 

 in coloring, form, and habit but will be dis- 

 placed by the far more charming Eldorado 

 that comes from England. Wyomissing with 

 me has proved very indifferent in all points 

 save color and that will not atone for its very 

 poorly shaped flowers and ragged growth. 



Of the Irises from abroad all, save Miss 

 Willmott, which with me has been fine, deserve 

 all that was said of them. But there are many 

 omissions. Let me commend Nine Wells, a 

 splendid four to five foot Iris with good flow- 

 ers, standards lavender and falls darker, with 

 some white veination on the haft of the falls; 

 Shelford Chieftain, 2l tall cypriana of temporary 

 merit, similar in coloring but lighter and with- 

 out veins; Tamerlane, a fine bicolor of very 

 perfect form and delicate coloring; Loute, sim- 

 ilar but with a tinge of red purple through 

 the lavender; Dawn, an exquisite pale yellow 

 better than flavescens though not identical: 

 La Neige, a very perfect late snow white; 

 Stamboul and Shalimar two splendid trojanas 

 with widely branching tall stalks and fine bi- 

 color lavender flowers. All these, with 

 Alcazar, Archeveque, Monsignor, Prosper Lau- 

 gier, Oriflamme, Edouard Michel, Mrs. Alan 

 Gray, Kashmir White, Miss Willmott, Parisi- 

 ana, and one or two others will make a group 

 of Irises that is a revelation. 



But there are other fine ones to be had and 

 these are of American origin. They come 

 from the garden of Miss Sturtevant who con- 

 tributed a note on the raising of seedling Irises 

 to The Garden Magazine for June of last 

 year. Her seedlings follow two distinct lines: 

 the familiar type as we know it in the various 

 groups pallida, variegata, etc., and the new 

 group that shows the influence of the blood of 

 I. cypriana and I. trojana. 



Of the former, the most striking is perhaps, 

 Anne Leslie. Here the standards are white 

 with the faintest flush of pink on opening and 

 the falls are a rich "dahlia carmine" to use a 

 term from Ridgeway. This far surpasses the 

 much heralded Dalila from Europe which is 

 much more dull throughout and darker in 

 color. Elinor is a charming dwarf Iris of a 

 good clear mallow pink, a distinct advance 

 over Wyomissing. Afterglow is an extraor- 

 dinary color, a dull pinkish gray so suffused 

 with a glowing yellow, especially in the centre 

 on the style arms, that it appears almost 

 luminous. A group of "variegatas," MedaU 

 ion, Rakan, Whiffenpoof, Sarabande, and 

 others, provides a finer set than we have now, 

 surpassing Princess Victoria Louise and others. 



Another group suggestive of Oriflamme and 

 Alcazar in the wide standing standards, com- 

 posed of Merlin, Myth, Magnate, Rangoon, 

 give a size of bloom that has not been ap- 

 proached as yet. Of special value also are 

 Empire, a splendid late pure yellow suggestive 

 of Monsignor in form and habit, and Shekinah 

 a tall late pure yellow of the best pallida form. 

 This last is one of the most prized achieve- 

 ments of the Glen Road Gardens. 



But the other group is the really important 

 one as it marks a distinct departure. Of the 

 seedlings in this group there is the exquisite 

 Mother-of-Pearl a five foot cypriana of a deli- 

 cate blue color with the faintest iridescence of 

 pink. A marked orange beard gives a distinct 

 accent. Nirvana is an equally tall plant with 

 flowers of a pinkish buff color underlaid with 

 lavender that deepens through the throat, 

 and below the beard. Queen Caterina is a 

 huge self-colored pale lavender violet. Mary 

 is a deep velvety violet almost the hue of the 

 early Spectabile. It comes quite late and has 

 the size and form of the cypriana varieties. 

 Mad. Cheri is a large flower with standards of 

 a delicate lavender buff with a yellow under- 

 tone and falls of an "ageratum violet" (to 

 quote Ridgeway again) flushed with pink. 

 Sherbert is similar save that the scheme is 

 strongly to pink, with a tinge of brown on 

 the falls and yellow veining on the haft of the 

 falls. And so one might continue, with 

 Elaine a pale lavender pink; Baronet, with 

 standards of "chickory blue" and falls a 

 deeper violet with 

 tawny olive veins 

 near the beard and 

 on the haft; Avalon, 

 a silver medal vari- 

 ety (from the Massa- 

 chusetts Horticul- 

 tural Society, which 

 h'as certificated 

 many of the varie- 

 ties) a monstrous 

 flower of perfect 

 form and substance, 

 and of a pinkish 

 lavender color. 



But there is soon 

 an end of terms to 

 relate the shades 

 that are to be found, 

 even with occasional 

 assistance from 

 Ridgeway; and a 

 treat is in store for 

 the garden lover 

 who comes to know 

 these new irises 

 that are our own, 

 the contribution 

 of an American 

 garden. 



Quest, new American seedling 

 Iris of cypriana type 





