1. The Japanese iris, largest of the family. Flowers nine to twelve inches across. A moisture-loving species. The flowers are flat— i. e., they have no upright petals 



The Best Irises— By Neltje Blanch 



ancnan 



Photographs by F. A. Waugh 



2. The Siberian iris, distinguished by its early 

 season and tall, slender stalKs. It blooms in May, 

 or abou 1 two weeK; before the German iris 



LITTLE wonder that a plant so boldly 

 decorative in outline and bearing a 

 flower of exquisite coloring so marvelously 

 formed should make its strongest appeal to 

 the artistic Japanese. From these fore- 

 most gardeners of the world has come a 

 strain of irises that neither orchids nor lilies 

 can rival in beauty of form, texture, coloring, 

 markings, and general effectiveness. In the 

 Mikado's garden, under ideal cultural con- 

 ditions — that is to say, in rich, warm, sunny, 

 alluvial land — the blossoms will measure 

 from nine to twelve inches across their flat 

 petals. Around the shores of those minia- 

 ture lakes and streams in which the Japanese 

 gardener, however humble, delights, the 

 irises are no less lovely because a small 

 garden demands that they be of lesser size. 

 Every one appreciates the iris in Japan. 

 Therefore, on the most costly cloisonne and 

 ceramic, as well as on "manv a vase and jar, 

 on many a screen and fan," whose decorator 

 may receive only an eighth of a cent for his 

 sketchy painting, this flower, imperial and 

 democratic, is the most familiar. For the 

 artist, at least, its value is double that of the 

 national chrysanthemum. 



Yet the Iris Kampjeri may be as easily 

 grown as the potato. Moreover, it is per- 

 fectly hardy. High, dry lands do not suit 

 its moisture-loving roots, but good garden 



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soil, enriched with thoroughly decayed ma- 

 nure, deeply dug in and well watered during 

 May and June — the blossom months in the 

 northeastern United States — will produce 

 flowers of wonderful size. Do not select a 

 shady place for your irises. They thrive 

 under full exposure to the sun, but moisture 

 they must have to bloom their best, and 

 sometimes their rccts will penetrate two 

 feet deep to get it. Naturalized in the water 

 garden, where the tall, narrow, blade-like 

 leaves rise in phalanxes around the shore 

 and the stately beauty of the flowers is re- 

 flected in the mirror below, they are ideally 

 situated; but let no one forego the delight 

 of growing Japanese irises merely because 

 he has net a pond or stream on his place. 

 Some exceedingly fine specimens have been 

 produced in a city back yard. 



Now that the Occidental as well as the 

 Oriental hybridizers produce an enormous 

 number of seedlings every year, new varie • 

 ties are constantly offered in the catalogues 

 — so many that, were their charms described 

 in Japanese, they could scarcely be more 

 bewildering to the American amateur. The 

 original parents of Ksempfer's lovely tribe 

 were /. laevigata with drooping "petals," 

 modeled on the natural rule-of-three plan, 

 and I . setosa with broader, more horizontal 

 "petals," the three outer and the three inner 



