present many problems and a real challenge to the grower’s skill 
and knowledge. 
These problems are of various types and every one has to be 
solved separately. In the first place, the small size of the iris bulbs 
and their offsets requires special machinery to harvest them. Of 
course, on a small scale they can be grown in rows, planted and 
dug by hand. A good, stout shovel, a strong back and a great deal 
of patience can do wonders with a row of iris bulbs. Even the most 
careful bulb digger, using a screen to separate the bulbs and 
bulblets from the soil, will however, overlook some of the smaller 
or smallest splits. In larger plantings hand digging would be en- 
tirely too costly and special machines have thus been built to get 
the bulbs out of the ground. Having designed and used two of these 
machines, I know that even they do not solve the problems of 
getting all the bulbs out of the ground. 
What happens then is this. Small bulbs, or splits, stay in the 
ground. They grow on and again throw off splits, even before they 
have flowered. Now, when we consider that, both for greenhouse 
use and for general garden purpose, the best type of bulb is the 
one that has not yet flowered but has reached a size large enough to 
flower the following year, it becomes obvious that in order to keep 
stocks true to name and free from rogues, new ground must be 
provided for all the iris every year. 
Some growers have tried to offset this factor by growing only 
one variety, so that if there were mixtures of old and new stock, 
they would cause no difficulties. ‘This, however, does not solve the 
next problem, namely that bulbous iris have a habit of making 
at least some top growth in the fall. These rather tender, pointed 
spears of foliage are subject to damage from hail, ice or mechanical 
injury, such as raking, during the usual fall cleanup. When dam- 
aged, this still tender foliage offers a ready field for fungus attacks. 
It is, therefore, essential that the emergence of iris foliage be re- 
tarded to avoid damage and fungus infection. This is done by 
planting the bulbs late and by storing them, prior to planting out, 
in a warm, dry, well-ventilated room or warehouse. Planting such 
retarded bulbs in a field where remnants of previous iris crops 
might still be present would expose the late new crop to fungus 
attacks that have developed during the winter on the foliage emerg- 
ing earlier from last year’s bulbs or from bulbs that might have been 
left in several years ago. While a carefully managed and rigidly 
2 
