Plant the rainbow with Bearded irises

For flamboyant spring-to-summer flowers in a spectrum of shades – often within the same bloom – flag irises are an obvious pick. Anne Swithinbank shares her favourites

- Anne Swithinbank

IN Greek mythology, Iris – the offspring of a marine god and a cloud nymph – was goddess of the rainbow and messenger to the gods. Fittingly, she lent her name to a group of plants whose flowers seem to represent every colour of the spectrum – with the exception of red.

Bearded iris open their blooms from spring to early summer; there are thousands of cultivars, but my favourites have always been those reminiscent of seascapes and skies. The peach, pink and blue of ‘Chasing Rainbows’ is sunset over the sea; ‘Wintry Sky’ has petals of pale and deep purple-blue, and cream; the subtle, washy hues of ‘Ciel Gris Sur Poilly’ are like rays of sunlight through brooding storm clouds.

These hardy plants originate from the Middle East and dry, sunny regions in the Med. Ground-hugging rhizomes send up sword-like leaves and, later, flower stems; the upright petals of the blooms are known as ‘standards’; the lower ones are ‘falls’. The ‘beard’ part is a reference to a block of fuzzy hairs on the falls, but they’re also known as ‘flag’ iris.