Difference: InfoEwbanksOnOncoCultivation (r3 vs. r2)

r3 - 27 Oct 2013 - 19:35 - BobPries r2 - 25 Oct 2013 - 19:00 - BobPries
  

Very early on a transparently clear and most delightful May morning I got up and passed through the well-known little gate into the enclosure which contains more exceptional and highly interesting floral treasures than any other garden in Europe. I knew not what there was to be seen, but from former experience I was sure I should find a great deal ; and so it was, only former experience was completely distanced at once. For the first time in my life I came across a very fine specimen of Iris Lorteti at the zenith of its beauty with its pale grey-lilac falls its dark brown spot about the throat, its orbicular standards which are of a pale grey colour most delicately veined with red-brown, and I thought I had never before seen anything to come up to this, it distanced everything else whatever it may have been : at last the rb /caX&v had been found.

I left the garden at once there was room for nothing else in my mind at the same time and I fetched my wife from the hotel in hot haste, and before she had been able to breakfast, lest any accident or unlooked-for occurrence should deprive her of a sight which she might never see again. From that time to this, Iris Lorteti has reigned supreme in my affections though it has been closely run by two or three near relatives of its own upon occasion Iris iberica and some others have gone far to equal it.

But now came the real difficulty of the affair for I had often tried to grow these Irises before, and I have had many and many a disappointment to deplore ; these Oncocyclus Irises made such a very deep impression on my mind, that I almost registered a vow that I would never leave them alone while the smallest chance remained to me of doing them well. It should be said here that I possess and work in a garden which has been appropriately called a veritable sun-trap, and I therefore judged that I had as good a chance of prospering with these beautiful flowers as anybody could have in the British Isles. I put therefore first and foremost as a desideratum in the way of cultivation which must be taken into account, a bright sunny exposure.

I would advise no one to waste time or money on Oncocyclus Irises who lives in a low-lying or wettish locality I think they would damp off very soon, and any notion on their part of posing as aquatics is very far distant. But, given the ordinary amount of sunshine which is to be met with in the Southern and Midland counties of England, and I should say that the prospect is favourable if only other things be right. I would recommend any one who lives in such parts of the world as Westmorland or Cumberland to take up with Cypripedium spectabile or Myosotidium nobile (if it be hardy enough), rather than to think of growing Iris Lorteti or Iris iberica among his treasures.

II. Another point to be insisted on is that these Irises must be grown in frames or, at any rate, they must have a shelter of some sort not during the winter, but rather the summer months. The reason is this : soon after they have blossomed and much too soon for their own good they will grow again in this country if no protection is offered they come, for the most part, from very hot regions of the earth, and when they die down they are baked hard by the burning rays of the sun, and for long weeks and months together all chance of growth is denied to them. But this is the very thing which is best and most suitable to their case ; perfect rest is enforced, and for a long period of time they remain quite quiet, and have no thought of movement at all. And let us contrast this with what would happen here in any ordinary year. Some passing thunderstorm and rain, which is so frequent in July, may flood the whole country round, and though soon afterwards the land may be dried up again, the Irises will have begun to grow, and great harm has been done to them. It is, therefore, absolutely necessary to put some covering over their heads soon after they have blossomed, so as to enforce rest upon them at all events, it is necessary to do this unless an alternative plan be adopted, which I do not like at all. I refer to what is called the taking-up system, which may be followed if there is nothing better to offer, but for which I do not care myself. According to this treatment, when the Irises have blossomed and the foliage has died down, the rhizomes are dug up out of the ground, and are put on the greenhouse shelf till the time for planting them has come round in the autumn. It is not to be denied that they will succeed after a fashion with this mode of culture but the contention, on the other hand, is that they never can do themselves justice when they are treated in this way, and the reason for it is quite obvious ; they take a long time to anchor themselves in the ground, ancf beyond everything else, they hate to be disturbed or tampered with in any way. It was an oracular saying of Herr Max Leichtlin, which he uttered a long time ago, but which should be as much respected now as when it fell from his lips, " Oncocycli do not like to be disturbed " ; and if that does happen, they lose for a time fulness the magnificence which they would otherwise have. I am sure that any one who has seen the blossoms of these Irises which have come from plants that have been long seated in one place, and others which have been taken from such as have been regularly moved, would say at once, if I grow these things at all I never will be contented with a makeshift and half-hearted sort of process, I will either find out how to do the thing properly, or I will leave it all alone, and I will turn my hand to something else. The following are Sir Michael Foster's words, who knows more about this matter than any one else, and who is treating it from another point of view : " If these Irises are taken up and are replanted somewhat early, the stimulus of the warm autumnal soil goads them into active growth, so that they try to make up for the time lost while they were on the greenhouse shelf, and soon the cold of winter bruises and spoils them ; or if they be planted late, the hand of winter is upon them before they have had time to anchor themselves by new roots, and frost thrusts them out of the ground ; and even if this be prevented by careful covering and the like, they are not so ready as plants which have remained in the ground to avail themselves of the forces of spring when these at last come." And all this is indisputably true, and should govern any measures that may be taken on their behalf. The Irises have a much better chance of braving successfully the rigours and the disagreeableness of an English winter, if they are well established in the ground long before it begins, than ever could be the case if they have only a very slight foothold in it and a precarious tenure. But then all this necessitates their being grown in frames, and, at all events, they must have some shelter over their heads in summer. It is not to be supposed that they will ever do quite well in the open all the year round, as so many of their congeners do their nature, their habits, their way of growing are peculiarly their own and in our artificial way of treating them we must find some method of enforcing on them rest for a sufficient length of time.

III. Another point of primary significance, if they be grown in frames, is that the drainage should be good, and ample ventilation be afforded at all times. Anything like a stuffy or confined mode of treatment is sure to be fatal to them. I do my best to keep them quite dry for a sufficient length of time after flowering, but I never by any chance shut them up closely or deprive them of a full current of air the sides of my frames are always left open and there are ventilators placed at the back of them ; the plants are protected from any torrents of rain, and besides this and a covering overhead, nothing is done to them.

But drainage is very carefully considered, and if there were any flaw on this head it would invalidate everything. These Oncocyclus Irises can never bear to be water-logged they simply perish offhand if they have any standing water about them. On this account when my frames were constructed, some rather elaborate steps were taken to make sure that the water could run quickly away broken brickbats and large stones were put in for a foundation to some little depth, and on the top of them sods of grass were placed bottom upwards so as to prevent the earth getting in and blocking up the interstices below ; above this came the properly prepared soil about which I shall speak hereafter, and the drainage was so laid down that no rain could settle among the roots but it should run quickly away. It is not at all difficult to manage this in reality, though a written description of it seems to imply trouble at once.

I have never had any disappointment on this head, and the plants have been very successfully kept from any stagnant water about their roots ; it should be added perhaps that the surface of my beds in the frames is carefully raised a few inches above the surrounding level, and this very greatly helps in throwing off the rains. I again say that this point must be carefully attended to, for nothing will go well if there is here a muddle of any sort.

IV. Another practice which I follow and which should not be overlooked is that of making the beds very hard and firm where the Irises are to be placed. I did not take this in at first when I began to attend to their cultivation, and I am sure I lost by my negligence in this respect, though I was quite unaware of it. I am now very much alive to the advisability of very firm planting, and my gardener and I think no trouble too great so as to make sure of it. We remember that Oncocyclus Irises never grant any pardon for an omission of duty regarding them, and we try to leave them no excuse for being sulky in our hands. When the compost for the Irises has been prepared it is thrown into the frames and then it is beaten down with spades with all the force at our command, and lest this should not be enough the whole surface of the beds is covered with thick boards, and I get men to stamp on them and in this way to compress the soil as much as is possible.

Before we have done with it the whole interior of a frame is as hard and solid as a rock, and any roots which make their way in it are in no danger of being shifted about they have as firm an anchorage as could be desired. And this is just what these creatures like, and no one should think that mere fussiness has been at work in the effort. I say again and again they are only to be conquered by attention to little things, and they must have all their desires fulfilled. Let any one who doubts about what I say make experiments with two Oncocyclus Irises and plant one in loose pliable soil and plant another in some rock-like substance which has been prepared after the manner set forth above, and then note how the plants will behave. My gardener and I hold it as a sort of axiom in their cultivation that very firm planting must be adopted. Nor let it be forgotten while planting is under review that the rhizomes should never be deeply covered up. No Iris that I know anything about likes to be very deeply buried and Oncocyclus Irises are all apiece with the others in this respect they must be sufficiently protected from the frost, and no more should be thought of.

V. I come now to a very important consideration indeed in fact, it is the turning-point of everything but, strangely enough, until quite lately, it has been left out of sight and very small attention was paid to it. I may say for myself that I thought the question of soil was in this case of very trifling moment, and that if other things, such as I have described, were attended to, the rest would be well ; or, at any rate, I supposed that the soil had not much to do with the matter either one way or the other. If I may speak of things in this very small relation which are of transcendent and universal importance, I may add that I have somewhere read that a slip, which was an obiter dictum of the great philosopher, Sir Isaac Newton, put back the advance of astronomical science in one direction for a hundred years. He was wrong in this one particular, but so convincing was his opinion and name, that nobody thought of questioning anything that fell from him, whatever it might be and for once in a way he erred. It was exactly so in this matter I am considering, though it has only the weight of a feather in the scale. The one mistake had to do with infinities, the other with the most utter triviality by their side ; but in both the misapprehension of a master, who was looked upon as an infallible authority, led others astray. I heard it said about the cultivation of Oncocyclus Irises, in the early days of attention being paid to them : " I do not think the question of soil has much to do with the matter ; success depends on other considerations" and as anything which Herr Max Leichtlin says about questions of horticulture is received as final by me at once, I put this safely by in the recesses of my brain, and I have treated it as an axiomatic principle from that time to this. I am not the only person who came to exactly the same conclusion about exactly the same thing in the selfsame way but it was in some measure our own fault. I have said that the speech I have referred to was made a very long time ago, and it may have been modified or altered between this and then ; at any rate, I do not suppose it was intended to bar all investigation on one point, as has been the case. I blame myself for not wondering a long time ago if first principles were quite so sure as I had supposed them to be. It was the excessive veneration which I feel for anything that comes from the Magician of Baden Baden which stopped me at this point, and I again repeat that what I refer to was said a very long time ago. If I had seen him lately, so as to speak to him about this matter, it might have been very different. I dare say he has long since found out what

Very early on a transparently clear and most delightful May morning I got up and passed through the well-known little gate into the enclosure which contains more exceptional and highly interesting floral treasures than any other garden in Europe. I knew not what there was to be seen, but from former experience I was sure I should find a great deal ; and so it was, only former experience was completely distanced at once. For the first time in my life I came across a very fine specimen of Iris Lorteti at the zenith of its beauty with its pale grey-lilac falls its dark brown spot about the throat, its orbicular standards which are of a pale grey colour most delicately veined with red-brown, and I thought I had never before seen anything to come up to this, it distanced everything else whatever it may have been : at last the rb /caX&v had been found.

I left the garden at once there was room for nothing else in my mind at the same time and I fetched my wife from the hotel in hot haste, and before she had been able to breakfast, lest any accident or unlooked-for occurrence should deprive her of a sight which she might never see again. From that time to this, Iris Lorteti has reigned supreme in my affections though it has been closely run by two or three near relatives of its own upon occasion Iris iberica and some others have gone far to equal it.

But now came the real difficulty of the affair for I had often tried to grow these Irises before, and I have had many and many a disappointment to deplore ; these Oncocyclus Irises made such a very deep impression on my mind, that I almost registered a vow that I would never leave them alone while the smallest chance remained to me of doing them well. It should be said here that I possess and work in a garden which has been appropriately called a veritable sun-trap, and I therefore judged that I had as good a chance of prospering with these beautiful flowers as anybody could have in the British Isles. I put therefore first and foremost as a desideratum in the way of cultivation which must be taken into account, a bright sunny exposure.

I would advise no one to waste time or money on Oncocyclus Irises who lives in a low-lying or wettish locality I think they would damp off very soon, and any notion on their part of posing as aquatics is very far distant. But, given the ordinary amount of sunshine which is to be met with in the Southern and Midland counties of England, and I should say that the prospect is favourable if only other things be right. I would recommend any one who lives in such parts of the world as Westmorland or Cumberland to take up with Cypripedium spectabile or Myosotidium nobile (if it be hardy enough), rather than to think of growing Iris Lorteti or Iris iberica among his treasures.

II. Another point to be insisted on is that these Irises must be grown in frames or, at any rate, they must have a shelter of some sort not during the winter, but rather the summer months. The reason is this : soon after they have blossomed and much too soon for their own good they will grow again in this country if no protection is offered they come, for the most part, from very hot regions of the earth, and when they die down they are baked hard by the burning rays of the sun, and for long weeks and months together all chance of growth is denied to them. But this is the very thing which is best and most suitable to their case ; perfect rest is enforced, and for a long period of time they remain quite quiet, and have no thought of movement at all. And let us contrast this with what would happen here in any ordinary year. Some passing thunderstorm and rain, which is so frequent in July, may flood the whole country round, and though soon afterwards the land may be dried up again, the Irises will have begun to grow, and great harm has been done to them. It is, therefore, absolutely necessary to put some covering over their heads soon after they have blossomed, so as to enforce rest upon them at all events, it is necessary to do this unless an alternative plan be adopted, which I do not like at all. I refer to what is called the taking-up system, which may be followed if there is nothing better to offer, but for which I do not care myself. According to this treatment, when the Irises have blossomed and the foliage has died down, the rhizomes are dug up out of the ground, and are put on the greenhouse shelf till the time for planting them has come round in the autumn. It is not to be denied that they will succeed after a fashion with this mode of culture but the contention, on the other hand, is that they never can do themselves justice when they are treated in this way, and the reason for it is quite obvious ; they take a long time to anchor themselves in the ground, ancf beyond everything else, they hate to be disturbed or tampered with in any way. It was an oracular saying of Herr Max Leichtlin, which he uttered a long time ago, but which should be as much respected now as when it fell from his lips, " Oncocycli do not like to be disturbed " ; and if that does happen, they lose for a time fulness the magnificence which they would otherwise have. I am sure that any one who has seen the blossoms of these Irises which have come from plants that have been long seated in one place, and others which have been taken from such as have been regularly moved, would say at once, if I grow these things at all I never will be contented with a makeshift and half-hearted sort of process, I will either find out how to do the thing properly, or I will leave it all alone, and I will turn my hand to something else. The following are Sir Michael Foster's words, who knows more about this matter than any one else, and who is treating it from another point of view : " If these Irises are taken up and are replanted somewhat early, the stimulus of the warm autumnal soil goads them into active growth, so that they try to make up for the time lost while they were on the greenhouse shelf, and soon the cold of winter bruises and spoils them ; or if they be planted late, the hand of winter is upon them before they have had time to anchor themselves by new roots, and frost thrusts them out of the ground ; and even if this be prevented by careful covering and the like, they are not so ready as plants which have remained in the ground to avail themselves of the forces of spring when these at last come." And all this is indisputably true, and should govern any measures that may be taken on their behalf. The Irises have a much better chance of braving successfully the rigours and the disagreeableness of an English winter, if they are well established in the ground long before it begins, than ever could be the case if they have only a very slight foothold in it and a precarious tenure. But then all this necessitates their being grown in frames, and, at all events, they must have some shelter over their heads in summer. It is not to be supposed that they will ever do quite well in the open all the year round, as so many of their congeners do their nature, their habits, their way of growing are peculiarly their own and in our artificial way of treating them we must find some method of enforcing on them rest for a sufficient length of time.

III. Another point of primary significance, if they be grown in frames, is that the drainage should be good, and ample ventilation be afforded at all times. Anything like a stuffy or confined mode of treatment is sure to be fatal to them. I do my best to keep them quite dry for a sufficient length of time after flowering, but I never by any chance shut them up closely or deprive them of a full current of air the sides of my frames are always left open and there are ventilators placed at the back of them ; the plants are protected from any torrents of rain, and besides this and a covering overhead, nothing is done to them.

But drainage is very carefully considered, and if there were any flaw on this head it would invalidate everything. These Oncocyclus Irises can never bear to be water-logged they simply perish offhand if they have any standing water about them. On this account when my frames were constructed, some rather elaborate steps were taken to make sure that the water could run quickly away broken brickbats and large stones were put in for a foundation to some little depth, and

on the top of them sods of grass were placed bottom

upwards so as to prevent the earth getting in and

blocking up the interstices below ; above this came

the properly prepared soil about which I shall speak

hereafter, and the drainage was so laid down that no

rain could settle among the roots but it should run

quickly away. It is not at all difficult to manage this

in reality, though a written description of it seems to

imply trouble at once.



I have never had any disappointment on this head, and

the plants have been very successfully kept from any

stagnant water about their roots ; it should be added

perhaps that the surface of my beds in the frames is

carefully raised a few inches above the surrounding

level, and this very greatly helps in throwing off the

rains. I again say that this point must be carefully

attended to, for nothing will go well if there is here

a muddle of any sort.



IV. Another practice which I follow and which

should not be overlooked is that of making the beds

very hard and firm where the Irises are to be placed.

I did not take this in at first when I began to attend to

their cultivation, and I am sure I lost by my negligence

in this respect, though I was quite unaware of it. I am

now very much alive to the advisability of very firm

planting, and my gardener and I think no trouble too

great so as to make sure of it. We remember that

Oncocyclus Irises never grant any pardon for an omission

of duty regarding them, and we try to leave them no

excuse for being sulky in our hands. When the com-

post for the Irises has been prepared it is thrown into

the frames and then it is beaten down with spades with

all the force at our command, and lest this should not

be enough the whole surface of the beds is covered

with thick boards, and I get men to stamp on them and

  
 
 
r3 - 27 Oct 2013 - 19:35 - BobPries r2 - 25 Oct 2013 - 19:00 - BobPries

View topic | View difference interwoven | History: r5 <r4 <r3 <r2 | More topic actions
This site is powered by FoswikiCopyright © by the contributing authors. All material on this collaboration platform is the property of the contributing authors.
Ideas, requests, problems regarding Iris Wiki? Send feedback