The Garden Magazine, June, 1924 
295 
this seedling as a basis for attempts to raise the height of my 
pallidas. 
Another seedling four feet in height which does not come into 
bloom until all the others are fading, 1 am using in an effort to 
see if it will transmit its late blooming qualities. If it does, my 
Iris season will be prolonged at least ten days. These seedlings, 
however, will not bloom until another season. The color of 
this plant is dull and it was difficult to select pollen parents as 
there were so few blooms left, but three seed-pods with only a few 
seed in each were secured and germinated well. 
From an old plant 1 purchased as 1 . sambucina, dwarf and 
very fragrant, 1 have raised a series of self colored rather deep 
toned lavenders and purples which are very free blooming and 
offer fine material for masses. They are about 28 inches in 
height and rather small flowered, but one of the finest subjects 
for a mass of color in all the Irises 1 have. These are the easiest 
type to secure from seeds but one of the most valuable for garden 
effect to be used either in masses by themselves of in front of 
taller Irises. 
The Trend of Iris Development 
W HEN a class of plants is taken in hand and developed 
by many enthusiasts, resulting in the introduction of a 
multitude of named varieties, no gardener can begin to keep up 
with the advance or to form any reliable judgment as to relative 
values. In such cases it very often happens that named varie¬ 
ties fall into oblivion and gardeners depend upon seed of highly 
developed strains and grow and select their own plants or buy 
them in mixtures. Irises are multiplying in alarming numbers. 
In the United States the reaction to over-development of varie¬ 
ties has been toward the mixed collections or to raising seed¬ 
lings. We do not, to any great extent, grow or buy named 
Gaillardias, Delphiniums, or Pyrethrums. 
On scanning the flood of new Irises each season and seeing the 
hopelessness of any enthusiast keeping any perspective on the 
field, it has occurred to me that possibly the development of 
the Iris was tending toward seedling raising. This year, for the 
first time, American seed catalogues are listing Iris seeds, that 
is, the tall bearded varieties. Any one may raise fine Irises for 
himself, but the better named varieties are needed to develop the 
plant and furnish finer seed parents to replace the old ones. Too 
closely similar kinds should not be named and introduced. 
And there need be no hesitation in telling the world the 
parentage of the best I rises in your garden, for it is altogether un¬ 
likely that the same crosses would duplicate them or that you 
yourself could do it again. Mr. Bliss has made the same cross 
that produced Dominion many times, but he has never dup¬ 
licated the plant. 
THE GARDEN WORKSHOP 
LESLIE HUDSON 
Adapting the Needs of the Garden to the Restrictions of 
Modern Suburban Life—Saving Coal and Space by Com¬ 
bining Garage, Greenhouse, and Workshop Under One Roof 
^pSVERY garden,” we glibly say, 
“means a home,” which is a 
convenient way of presenting 
what is very nearly a truth. 
For a fact there are plenty of examples 
of places where people dwell in comfort or even luxury in 
a gardenesque setting and which yet may fall short of what 
is really expressed in the word home. Let us not lose sight 
of the peculiar significance of this Anglo-Saxon word for which 
no other language offers an adequate equivalent. 
The true home means something more than a mere dwelling 
and its appurtenances. It means a unit well knit together as 
nearly self-contained as the circumstances of the time and con¬ 
ditions of the region demand. It does not mean the identical 
thing in all places; but, taken in the sense in which it is employed 
in the phrase just used, it means something of a place that 
nestles in comfort and in an atmosphere of content and well¬ 
being to which a sentimental attachment is developed because 
of the everyday incidents of living. In very fact the home 
cannot be without its garden, for lacking that larger outdoor 
area that encloses the dwelling it becomes merely the habita¬ 
tion and abode. The home feeds the material, the esthetic, and 
the spiritual needs of the human soul. 
Not so long ago it was literally the homestead, and a charm¬ 
ing word to conjure with, but that belonged to the day when 
the rural population greatly exceeded the urban. Since then, 
and in the present day there have been great changes—as the 
urban centers have grown and fed the exigencies of modern life 
which created them, there has also grown up a vast new inter¬ 
mediate group, the suburban; and yet another for which no 
name has yet been found, but which includes the large and 
rapidly growing group of ultra-suburban 
and yet infra-rural, which is the great 
class that constitutes the modern gar¬ 
deners who garden esthetically to live 
comfortably. These people have new 
requirements. Expanding out of the fringe of the city growth, 
where the business folk of the city dwell within reach of all 
the benefits of the truly rural and yet in intimate contact 
with the conveniences of the big business centers, is a new class 
of home-garden makers who with moderate-sized plots use the 
open space, or should do so at any rate, to actually live in 
for recreation, and not alone for the purpose of sustenance and 
support. 
T HE automobile is an essential factor in the life of this pop¬ 
ulation; and garden plots (in the sense in which we are now 
considering them) have to conform to the housing needs of this 
modern agent of transportation. The garage is in reality a very 
pressing problem to be considered with the garden and is ever 
taking a greater and greater place in relation to the garden and 
the house. Although strictly separate, it is an architectural 
feature and therefore to be considered with the dwelling; 
although too frequently in actual practice it becomes a very 
stern piece of garden furniture—not always artistic, usually far 
away from that. In fact, because it has been introduced as 
an afterthought, it usually appears rather as an excresence, than 
as part of any original design. There are not wanting people 
with an ear close to the trend of gardening activities who claim 
that the automobile is the great destroyer of gardens. That 
may be so indeed if you consider only the very small outlying 
city plot where houses are jammed together and the oncoming 
