Irises are my favourite flower, I had some in my wedding bouquet and I was almost tempted to call my daughter Iris – I think she would thank me for not doing so, it is not a name that appeals to her! It has become more popular as a name recently, but I still think of it as old-fashioned and belonging to my grandmother’s generation.
Iris means rainbow, and the flowers come in a rainbow assortment of colours, everything you could imagine from black and brown through purples and blues and yellows and pinks and… “I could paint a rainbow”, yes, indeed! Irises grow from rhizomes, and apparently some rhizomes can be dried and refined in some way and then used in perfumes… and in the making of some gin including the excellent Bombay Blue Sapphire Gin (I don’t like gin except in Martinis, and except Bombay Blue!)
There are over 300 species of iris, and I am sure there are new ones being discovered all the time; they are just so lush and exotic, and when I see the first ones flowering I know that the seasons are on the change.
Lois Elsden 
I too love irises and have some miniature ones in with the crocuses and daffodils in the front garden. When we called on our friends Jim and Shirley Williams last weekend I noticed some in a pot near their front door which were a beautiful colour. They were wedgwood blue with a gold inside. I asked Shirley where they’d got them as I’d not seen that colour in local garden centres and she said they were from a plant sale at Dunham Massey, a local National Trust property. I’ll have to look out for them next year.
I can’t see that Madeleine would object to being called Iris as she’s called after a cake!
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Aaaah, but she likes eating cakes!! I keep texting her with updates of spring flowers and she replies with a groan! When she’s my age, I tell her, she’ll be doing the same with her children!
Have a look at this: http://www.kelways.co.uk/
if you have the chance to go into deepest Somerset, you’ll see some lovely things there!
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Lovely website, but I’m not sure which is the one that Shirley had.
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