The Garden Magazine, September, 1919 



55 



Wants an Iris Society Formed 

 C. W. H. Heideman, Oregon 



THE recent mention of Iris arenaria in the Garden Mag- 

 azine will have the effect of starting me on another 

 thousand mile chase to find it. 

 Why can't we have a clearing 

 house through which Iris fans 

 can locate some of the species 

 which are new, rare or local' 

 Why can't we have an Iris 

 Society? 



There are two reforms ur- 

 gently needed. Reforms that 

 only a Society can tackle. 

 One is the Iris-color-blindness 

 disease of originators of 

 "pink" Iris, and the compilers 

 of plant catalogues. The other 

 is to settle once for all time the 

 German Iris name. As an 

 American-Iris-Lover I have no 

 objection to the name Iris ger- 

 manica as applied to Var. Khar- 

 put which is generally accepted 

 as a true I. germanica, but 

 when an American or any other 

 catalogue classes Mr. Farr's 

 beautiful pallida Wyomissing 

 under the heading "German 

 Iris" I think it time to call a 

 halt I 



If we have got to have a 

 hyphenated name in place of 

 the misnomer why not have 

 one sanctioned by scientific ap- 

 proval and usage — Rainbow- 

 Iris. Under this name even I. germanica may without pre- 

 judice come into the League of Iris. 



I want to introduce Iris chrysophylla, a dainty Oregon 

 species not mentioned in any of the catalogues. As beautiful 

 as the rainbow itself, I know a sunny open slope where there 

 are literally millions of them. The falls are but little wider 

 than the very narrow standards and droop to the same angle 

 forming a perfectly symmetrical open flower resembling Lilium 

 candidum. I am not color blind, yet it is impossible for me 

 to describe the iridescent beauty of its color. 



An Evergreen California Iris in the East 

 B. Y. MoRRison, Takoma Park, D. C. 



EVER since I have lived in California I have wanted some 

 of the charming native Irises for my eastern garden. 

 In the spring of 1918 I obtained several species and this year 

 was rewarded with blooms from all of the color forms of Iris 

 Douglasiana, an evergreen species with slender foliage about 

 a foot high. The plants start into growth early in the season 

 and seem to be more sensitive to the mild frosts that come in 

 the spring than to the lower temperatures of the winter. A 

 heavy mulch of decaying leaf mould made an excellent mulch 

 keeping the plants in good condition. The new shoots of 



AN EVERGREEN 

 this shows flowers of Iris Dougla 

 Y. Morrison, about three quarters 

 ivory white to deep blue 



leaves are often highly colored, flushed with vivid red and 

 pink at the bases. The flowers are borne on slender stalks 

 with three or four flowers to the stalk. The colors range 

 from the most delicate ivory white to deep blues. Those 

 illustrated were of two colors, the upper one pale straw color 



flushed with a most delicate 

 blue and the lower a pale lav- 

 ender veined darker. 



As I write a fair number of 

 pods seem to be setting on the 

 plants so that seedlings may 

 be available. Because these 

 plants have very slender rhi- 

 zomes and scanty root systems, 

 they are difficult to move and 

 even when the precaution of 

 moving them at the end of 

 winter is taken, one sometimes 

 loses established plants. Or- 

 dinary garden soil rich in leaf 

 mould seems to satisfy require- 

 ments; and like many others 

 they benefit by a summer 



Appraising Iris by Points 



A. J. Bliss, Morwellham, 

 Tavistock, England 



TH E score card for garden 

 plants by R. S. Sturtevant 

 in the AprilGARDEN Magazine 

 was most interesting and the 

 20 per cent, allotted to Unus- 

 ual Qualities is a good idea. 

 It is primarily intended for 

 judging Bearded I rises and es- 

 timating their value in the garden and from that point of view 

 there is very little alteration I could suggest. I would add 

 two more characters: Constitution and Freedom of flower- 

 ing — but the former is practically included in "growth" 

 (vigorous), and the latter in "mass effect." Both are how- 

 ever important and warrant an addition to their points. I 

 think more value should be given to "shape" (form of flowers) 

 for in the garden besides the general effect we find pleasure 

 in appreciating each individual flower. Substance also tells 

 in rough weather. Furthermore to make a standardized 

 score card fully useful, that is, so that it would convey the 

 same meaning to different people, it would be necessary to 

 have a list of standard varieties representing the highest 

 degree of excellence for each character, and several for color. 

 My score card thus takes the whole 100 points, and any added 

 for unusual qualities or exceptional excellence would be over 

 and above, which seems justified since they would be above 

 the 100 per cent, standard, and even so, probably no variety 

 would attain the full 100 points. 



It is of course also necessary for the plant breeder to have 

 a fixed standard in estimating his seedlings, to correct the 

 optimism of first impression and to give due weight to those 

 characters which he considers are of special importance in 

 breeding. I give my score card for seedlings below, and on 



CA1 IFORNIA IRIS 

 sian.i as grown in the East by Mr. B. 

 natural size. The flowers range from 



