The Garden Magazine, June, 1922 



263 



Finally there is an exqui- 

 site little mauve and violet 

 Iris from Greece known as 

 I. cretensis, or again as the 

 var. angustifolia of ungui- 

 cularis. 1 have sometimes 

 had it sent me as the var. 

 speciosa of the latter spe- 

 cies. There is some differ- 

 ence in the authorities as 

 to whether speciosa is really 

 the same as this, but most 

 agree at least in considering 

 angustifolia and cretensis 

 identical. Those who refer 

 to it as angustifolia always 

 place it under unguicularis 

 as a variety, those who grant 

 it specific rank use the name 

 cretensis. After growing it 

 for some years, my own 

 sympathies incline rather 

 strongly toward the latter 

 view. 



Dykes* has called atten- 

 tion to the fact that " those 

 forms that flower earliest 

 usually have foliage long 

 enough to shelter the flow- 

 ers, while the late-flowering 

 varieties throw up the 



blooms above the foliage." This holds especially true in my ex- 

 perience as regards cretensis, for the narrow, grassy leaves of this 

 species are not only shorter and less luxuriant than in any of the 

 forms of unguicularis, but have a way of bending themselves out 

 and downward, leaving the flowers to rise daintily above, even 

 though their own stem-like tubes have something of the same 

 oblique tendency and are considerably shorter than in ungui- 

 cularis. The individual flowers of cretensis are perhaps the 

 loveliest of any of the group on account of their unusual depth 

 and richness of color. The standards are mauve, shading to- 

 ward Pleroma violet (of Ridgway), the falls haematoxylin 

 violet, deepening to hyacinth violet at the base, and with a 

 bright signal patch of light cadmium. All the members of 

 the group are delicately scented, but the fragrance of cretensis, 

 with its distinct suggestion of Violets, is especially alluring. 



While the weaker growth of this species, as compared with 



* "Irises" (Garden Flowers in Color Series), p 50. 



W. N. Kline, Jr., Photo. 



IRIS UNGUICULARIS BLOOMING IN MIDWINTER AT REDLANDS, CAL. 



" In southern California the first shy blossoms appear on established plants in September, grad- 

 ually increasing in abundance and height till the winter rains bring out a fair burst of bloom" 



the unguicularis series, and its comparatively short blooming 

 season diminish its garden value, it is an exquisite cut flower 

 for bowls and certain types of low table decoration where a 

 longer stem would be a disadvantage. It is perhaps in this 

 way that all the Mediterranean Irises find their best use. It 

 is a knack soon learned to pull them in the bud in such a way 

 as to increase by a full inch or so the available length of " stem," 

 and then let them open as they will in water in the house, where 

 the dainty blooms seem a welcome, if at times anachronistic, 

 harbinger of spring. 



None of these Irises appear ever to have been used in 

 hybridization, either among themselves or in connection with 

 other Apogons, nor until last season (1921) have any of mine 

 been detected in the act of setting any naturally fertilized 

 seed. Very plausibly there is a field here for some interesting 

 work. 



GETTING LATE TOMATO PLANTS FROM 



EARLY ONES 



A. RUTLEDGE 



'ERY often when the gardener comes to thinking in late 

 June and early July, about plants for a late Tomato 

 crop he does not find it easy to procure them; yet the 

 shrewd gardener has at his hand all that he needs. 

 At every leaf-joint Tomatoes throw out a sucker; and this is 

 usually stocky and strong. If left on the plant, this sucker may 

 bear; but many gardeners, believing that these extraneous 

 growths exhaust the strength of the parent, remove all suckers 

 up to a certain height on the plant. In any event, it does the 

 parent no harm to remove at least some of these lusty children. 



These suckers root readily; in fact, a Tomato is fond of taking 

 root wherever it can touch the ground. Pull off suckers that 

 are well formed (say, from eight to ten inches long) and that 

 are of heaviest growth. With a small round stick punch a hole 

 in the ground six inches deep. Fill this with water, and then 

 drop the sucker in, firming the earth about it. Growth will 

 begin immediately, and will proceed normally. 



From suckers thus planted about the end of June, the very 

 finest late Tomatoes may be gathered from mid-September 

 until hard frosts put an end to the season's growth. 



