Irises - Historic Iris Preservation Society

84 PRESENT-DAY GARDENING
and to transplant them at once. This early disturbance,
it
cannot be repeated too often, will do the plants no harm ;
in fact they should be all the better for it in the following
year, for these comparatively shallow-rooting and fastgrowing
plants cannot be grown year after year in the
same spot without deteriorating, unless they are lifted from
time to time and given fresh soil.
A good effect may be produced in borders by planting
late flowering Darwin or Cottage tulips among clumps
of such forms of /. germanica as that which is known
in
England as the type, Amas (macrantha), Kharput,
Oriflamme, atropurpurea, or florentina. Only the tallest
of the so-called Cottage tulips are suitable for use in this
to throw
way, but all the Darwins are of sufficient height
up their flowers well among the Iris blooms. Not only
do these two plants do well together, but they may be
left untouched in any well-drained soil for two or three
years, after which the whole should be lifted, as soon in
the season as the tulip stems can be bent double without
their snapping. The Irises can then be replanted in clumps,
with possibly some dwarf-growing annual to hide the bare
patches between them until the autumn, when the tulips
can be replanted early in November.
Where such an arrangement
is
adopted, care must be
taken that rampant plants, such as perennial Sunflowers,
Delphiniums, and above all Michaelmas Daisies, do not
encroach upon the Irises, when the latter have become
mere clumps of foliage, and thus deprive them of that
place in the sun, and of the consequent ripening of the
rhizomes, which is essential if the plants are to flower
well in the following season.