294 
The Garden Magazine, June, 1924 
BEARDED IRIS IN AN OLD-FASHIONED GARDEN AT SONNENBERG, CANANDAIGUA, NEW YORK 
Where walls shut out intruding winds and flowers flourish within their friendly 
shelter—an inviting garden with its sunshine and its guardian Apple tree 
and branching stems of the new Asiatic species were forecast 
easily enough, but they have given no new colors. Previous to 
Miss Sturtevant’s Shekinah and later yellows we had only the 
short stemmed variegatas in self yellow. 
Mme. Chereau seems instinctively to attract a beginner as do 
some of the plicatas. It seems on the face of it simple enough 
to cross Mme. Chereau with a yellow or a variegata in which 
yellow predominates, but the seedlings will produce plants as 
surprising as a flock of ducks to a brooding hen. The pinks and 
reds (which are really purples), attract to attempts to get 
brighter and purer colors. Crossing a red with a red or a pink 
with a pink suggests intensification, but it doesn’t work out. 
There will be reds and pinks, undoubtedly, some very beautiful 
ones as I have found in Queen of May and her Majesty seedlings, 
but no nearer to real reds or pinks. They may be cleaner col¬ 
ored but that is about all. 
Of Reasonable Expectations and Great Rewards 
N OWas to what may be expected reasonably—pallida Dalma- 
tica, or pallida seedlings, will give a fine line of lavenders 
ranging from light to dark with some orchid, pink, or red shades, 
all very handsome, as a rule varying from 2 feet to 4 feet or 
more in height, depending somewhat on the pollen parent, in this 
variation, although this is no safe guide. There will be some 
bicolors, that is the falls deeper colored than the standards, but 
seifs seem more frequent among pallida seedlings than almost 
any other class. 1. pallida crossed with 1. variegata may not 
give any yellow. 
The neglecta class—which includes Monsignor, Perfection, 
and a wide range of beautiful Irises notable for the velvety tex¬ 
ture of the falls, also some handsome seifs and some fine pink and 
red shades—give a great variety of coloring but restricted to 
these lavender and purple shades. 
The amoenas give me a singular array of purples, lavenders, 
and bicolors, but never a real amoena to date; the amoenas being 
distinguished by the white or nearly white standards and deeper 
colored falls. 
Such variegatas as I have succeeded in raising—only a few, as 
variegatas are rare seeders in my garden—have given me a few 
inferior specimens not worth keeping. 
Perhaps the enumeration of some of the fine varieties and 
their parentage is the most illuminating way of representing the 
possibilities. The new and what may be called the giant-flower¬ 
ing type owes the size of its flowers in a majority of cases to Iris 
Amas or Iris macrantha as it is known botanically. It is one of 
the parents of Dominion, the seed parent of Lent A. Williamson, 
and enters into Lord of June, Prospero, and Halo among the 
newer Iris and into Isoline, Loute, and Tamerlane of the older 
types. It is a rather early bloomer and rarely seeds in this 
climate but is a useful pollen parent for those seeking size. 
Mrs. H. Darwin, the best cheap white for massing that we 
have, although the individual flowers are poor, is a good seed and 
pollen parent. As a pollen parent for Caterina it has given 
some fine things. While whites as a rule do not reproduce 
whites (a white Iris being regarded as an albino) Mrs. H. Darwin 
has given a notable exception in a new French Iris, Balaruc, a 
greatly improved Mrs. Darwin, taller and larger flowered. 
Her Majesty crossed with Mrs. Neubronner, a deep yellow, 
gave Belcolor, another French novelty with yellow standards 
and white falls striped with plum color. 
While a raiser of Iris seedlings is bound to be possessed with 
an intense desire to keep up with the procession and will yearn 
for plants of Irises Ricardi and mesopotamica to try the experi¬ 
ments which are yielding such wonderful plants as Mile. Sch¬ 
wartz and others, the possibilities of the older and cheaper Irises 
are by no means exhausted and are almost unlimited in variety. 
1 have found that seedlings selected for some outstanding char¬ 
acteristics are the most satisfactory and interesting subjects for 
crossing. They are much more free in seed production for me 
and usually more vigorous in growth. It is possible to develop a 
great variety of effort from a batch of seedlings. Some plant 
breeding authorities say that the progeny secured by the crossing 
of closely related plants are likely to be more vigorous than their 
parents. On this basis I account for a pallida dalmatica seed¬ 
ling I have, identical with the parent plant in color but much 
more vigorous and averaging ten inches taller. I have selected 
