NOTES AND GLEANINGS. 
371 
prolonged drought when all vegetation faints ; but even then the German 
Iris bears it better than most plants. Watering German Irises is the 
surest way to kill them ; planting them in the shade is the best recipe 
tor getting little or no bloom. 
It is not generally known that by far the best time to divide clumps of 
German Iris and replant is in July, immediately after the blooming is 
over and before the new root growth has begun. At this time you may 
treat them apparently most unmercifully, and they never resent it. 
whereas, if the roots be 
injured (as they must be in 
replanting) in the autumn, 
they often rot back to the 
rhyzome, and a whole year, 
and possibly the plant itself, 
is lost. 
(2 and 3) The other 
two commonest garden 
Irises, the Spanish Iris, 
hg. 177, and the English 
Iris, fig. 178, are bulbous, 
and not like the German, 
rhyzomatous. Both of 
them rejoice in the sun- 
shine, but the Spanish 
loves a dry soil, and the 
English a moist one, and 
therefore where one thrives 
the other generally fails 
unless special care be be- 
stowed upon it. Sir 
Michael Foster gives the 
following excellent advice : 
"If he whose garden is 
adapted to the English Iris 
wishes to grow the Spanish 
one, let him take the bulbs 
up yearly, planting them 
somewhat late, and choos- 
ing a sunny, dry spot. . . . 
He, on the other hand, who 
fight for the English, 
situation available .... and supply moisture artificially 
while the plants are growing and blooming." 
Fig. 178. 
can grow 
should choose 
the 
for 
Spanish 
it the 
easily, but has to 
dampest, unshaded 
(if lacking) 
N 
