THE WORLD’S FINEST IRISES 


Gardening Has Artistic Lure 
Having grown Iris for more than 25 years, importing them from 
every nook and corner of the globe where the Iris grows, testing every 
new outstanding variety, I can now testify that it is one of the most 
delightful and fascinating “Hobbies” imaginable. 
If one has an artistic temperament there is great allurement in try- 
ing to make one’s garden a real, living, growing, ever-changing picture 
—a garden of enchantment to those who love the beauties of nature. 
In fact, I am sure there can be no greater satisfaction to the artist 
in being able to catch one fleeting glimpse of nature, and fixing it 
upon his canvas with brush and color, than there is to the enthusi- 
astic gardener in being able to create a living garden picture. 
If one cannot enjoy the luxuries of collecting fine paintings, one 
can get a great thrill out of collecting the finest products of the 
hybridizer’s skill. 
If it isn’t convenient to enjoy the fascinations of golf, try swinging 
a hoe, instead of a golf stick, for there is great magic in the ordinary 
garden accessories, and perhaps quite as much fun in training a living 
flowering plant to surpass itself, as there is in inducing a golf ball 
to do one’s bidding. 
If you have a speculative hankering, but have come to learn that 
the stock-market is a hazardous place to satisfy this craving, try one 
of the most abserbing speculations in the world, at little or no expense, 
by crossing two varieties of Irises, planting the seeds from the 
resulting crosses, and awaiting breathlessly the new variety of your 
own creation; for it is as easy to create a new type of flower that has 
never existed before, as it is to make a cup of tea. 
One of the joys of living in the country is to enjoy the pleasures of 
a home garden, especially a flower garden, for a country home with- 
out a garden is like a violin without strings, a radio without tubes, 
an automobile without an engine. 
There is no flower that is more easily grown than the Iris, none 
that will produce a wider range or a greater riot of color, with every 
conceivable fragrance, great diversity of form, size and height, and 
with a blooming season lasting three months if the proper varieties 
are selected. 
_ They need not be dug up or covered during the winter, or replanted 
in the spring. You just let them stay where they are and they come 
up smiling next season. They will grow anywhere, in full sun or 
semi-shade, and in any ordinary garden soil. Truly they are the most 
accommodating of all plants, and most bounteous in their returns 
for any little attentions that are shown them. 
There is no trick to growing fine Irises. The trick is only in 
getting the proper varieties from a reliable grower. 
Robert Wayman 
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