Iris (plant)

See text.

Cultivation

The flag iris variety is for the most part the easiest to cultivate and the most easily propagated. They have become very popular in the garden. They grow in any good free garden soil, the smaller and more delicate species needing only the aid of turfy ingredients, either peaty or loamy, to keep it light and open in texture. The earliest to bloom are the dwarf forms of Iris pumila, which blossom during March, April and May; and during the latter month and the following one most of the larger growing species, such as I. germanica, fiorenhina, pallida, variegata, amoena, flavescens, sambucina, neglecta, ruthenica, etc., produce their flowers. Of many of the foregoing there are, besides the typical form, a considerable number of named garden varieties. Iris unguicularis (or stylosa) is a remarkable winter flowering species from Algeria, with sky-blue flowers blotched with yellow, produced (in the Northern Hemisphere) at irregular intervals from November to March, the bleakest period of the year.

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Many other smaller species of bulbous iris, being liable to perish from excess of moisture, should have a well-drained bed of good but porous soil made up for them, in some sunny spot, and in winter should be protected by a 6-in, covering of half-decayed leaves or fresh coco-fibre refuse. To this set belong milifolia, junonia, danfordiae, reichenbachii and others which flower as early as February and March.

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The cushion irises are somewhat fastidious growers, and to be successful with them they must be planted rather shallow in very gritty well-drained soil. They should not be disturbed in the., autumn, and after the leaves have withered the roots should be protected from heavy rains until growth starts again naturaily.

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