90 
House & Garden 
Trowbridge & Ackerman, Architects, New York City 
232 E. Ohio Street, Chicago 
“The Prettiest House in Town” 
is the compliment freely given this attractive house 
of English architecture, belonging to Mr. J. H. 
Peterson of Ottawa Hills, near Toledo, Ohio. 
Much of its charm is due to its casement windows, 
which lend themselves to artistic treatment and give 
to the rooms when opened an airiness not other¬ 
wise possible. 
The practical difficulties, such as are presented by 
the use of fly screens, have been entirely overcome by 
UJirODot 
Trade^^fr^ ^ Mark 
Casement Adjusters 
The Win-Dor Casement Ad¬ 
juster, invented by Mr. Robert 
C. Spencer, F. A. I. A., and 
perfected by six years’ experi¬ 
ence and improvement,makes 
the casement window as con¬ 
venient as it is picturesque, 
and as economical as it is 
luxurious. 
The fly screen is set inside the 
window, concealing almost 
completely the Adjuster but 
not interfering with its oper¬ 
ation. The screen need not 
be lifted; the Adjuster locks 
automatically. 
Write for Descriptive 
Win-Dor Casement Adjusters 
are made to attach to the sur¬ 
face of the sill or to be 
countersunk flush with the 
sill. They are made in brass 
or bronze metal, or in gal¬ 
vanized finish, which can be 
easily painted to match the 
woodwork. 
The few parts, strength and 
efficiency of the Win-Dor 
Adjuster, together with its 
simplicity and inconspicuous- 
ness, make it the most sat¬ 
isfactory article of hardware 
conceivable for the purpose. 
Booklet, Prices, Etc. 
WIN-DOR CASEMENT ADJUSTER, FLUSH TYPE; 
DETACHABLE HANDLE NOT SHOWN 
In creating new iris the hybridizer plucks with fine pointed pincers 
the stamens of the blossoms selected for seed parents 
Flowers of the Rainbow 
(Continued from page 88) 
their existence to the fact that I have 
since transplanted them. This persist¬ 
ent belief among the uninitiated that 
the iris is semi-aquatic is probably due 
to the fact that the native wild iris, I. 
versicolor, really is a semi-aquatic, and 
thrives in swampy meadows. This par¬ 
ticular species, however, and the Eng¬ 
lish, I. Pseudacorus, both Apogons, are 
perhaps the only irises that can live in 
water. A few others prefer damp soil, 
notably the Japanese, and these can 
stand actual water in summer; but most 
of the others, including the great army 
of bearded irises, demand dry soil and 
full sunshine. 
One is usually warned against the 
use of manure as a fertilizer, and to 
bring manure into actual contact with 
the rhizomes is said to be fatal. Bone 
meal, dug in around the roots, is al¬ 
ways recommended. The fear of 
manure is perhaps somewhat exag¬ 
gerated for I have used it successfully 
in my own garden, as a top dressing, 
later dug in. A dressing of lime is a 
necessity for success with bearded 
irises, but strangely enough, the Apo¬ 
gons must never be given lime. 
Irises have some insect enemies but 
not so many as do some other garden 
plants. Tent caterpillars occasionally 
destroy a few flower buds, while the iris 
borer is a more formidable foe. This 
pest, the larva of a moth, enters the 
flower stalk, which soon shows by its 
withering that the borer is within, and 
works downward. He may enter the 
root and destroy it. Keeping the beds 
cleanly cultivated and free from rubbish 
is the remedy prescribed for the borer. 
It is obviously also necessary to kill 
the individual borers wherever found, 
to prevent their reaching the root. Cut 
worms also occasionally do damage. 
Usually more serious than insect pests 
is the root rot disease which reduces 
the normally firm, brittle rhizomes to 
the consistency of cus¬ 
tard. I first made its ac¬ 
quaintance several years 
ago when I received a 
large consignment of 
roots and discovered they 
were all affected. I cut 
away the rotted portions 
and soaked the remainder 
for an hour in water 
tinged pink with potas¬ 
sium permanganate. The 
treated rhizomes gave a 
perfectly normal crop of 
flowers. Dusting the 
roots with powdered sul¬ 
phur after the diseased 
portion has been cut 
away is also recom¬ 
mended, and Mr. E. B. 
Williamson recommends 
scraping away the dis¬ 
eased portion without removing the 
plant and filling in the cavity with 
powdered gypsum. This method has 
proved successful with him and has the 
obvious advantage over other methods 
that it leaves the plant undisturbed. 
Nine-tenths of the irises under culti¬ 
vation in American gardens are Pogon- 
iris, the tall bearded irises. The Amer¬ 
ican Iris Society finds that more than 
2 S00 named varieties have been offered 
for sale in this country since American 
seedsmen have sold the plant, and it is 
thought that 1300 of these are still ad¬ 
vertised. A recent balloting by mem¬ 
bers of the society resulted in a selection 
of but 7S0 of these as worthy of any 
consideration at all, and of these not 
more than 100 scored more than 80 on 
a scale of 100. Hereafter dealers can 
hardly afford to fail to publish in their 
catalogues the society’s rating for each 
variety offered for sale, as the peony 
dealers are already doing. With this 
rating as a guide the beginner may make 
his selections with a good deal of con¬ 
fidence. 
The tall bearded irises may be con¬ 
sidered in two groups, first the novelties, 
introduced within the last five or six 
years; and second, the standard varie¬ 
ties, introduced prior to that period. 
The former are, of course, much higher 
in price, but as the work of the plant 
breeders goes on constantly, and is 
yearly more intelligently conducted, the 
newer irises can, in general, be counted 
on to be better than most of those now 
existing, and each year will see many 
now standard varieties discarded for 
manifestly improved forms. It will be 
gratifying to the possibly slender pursed 
novice to know that a high priced iris, 
if it is really good, will not remain high 
priced, or excessively so, for any very 
lengthy period. This is due to the fact 
that irises are propagated by root divi¬ 
sion, and if the plant is a reasonably 
rapid grower the stock 
will multiply rapidly 
enough to permit price 
reduction, if it does not, 
the variety is, obviously, 
not completely good. It 
is certainly a poor grow¬ 
er, and such a variety 
will in all probability 
soon be replaced by an¬ 
other equally valuable as 
a flower and improved as 
to annual growth. The 
constantly growing de¬ 
mand for all the better 
irises is, however, an¬ 
other factor which tends 
to keep prices high in 
spite of rapidly multiply¬ 
ing stocks. 
Pogoniris are often ar- 
(Continued on page 92) 
The structure of the iris 
flower. Courtesy of the 
American Iris Society 
