The Iris flowers in silver-white, purple-blue and sea-green colours to haunt our eyes with its startling beauty.
It also loves yellow and takes on its turmeric shades. It is sometimes called a flag because it flutters in the breeze like a banner. Experts claim that this unusual flower goes back more than 4000 years!  Louis VII of France had adopted the Iris as a banner emblem when he led the Crusades in the 12th century. It is still the royal emblem of France. It was known as the fleur-de-luce and also as the fleur-de-Louis…..

The blue iris is the state flower of Tennessee. It is an international flower grown in Egypt, Japan, North Africa, Italy, Greece, Germany, Holland, Mexico and in India! In Britain there is a wild iris also called a ‘stinking iris’ as it smells weird when its leaves are crushed.

The Iris got its name in the second century BC. It may have been named after Iris, the messenger of the gods who dashes across rainbows to pass on messages, uniting heaven and earth, wearing the same purple, blue, silver-milk white colours of this enthralling flower. 

The iris at one time also was linked to health. Hippocrates found a remedy for certain complaints in its roots. Even now, children with painful teeth are given a piece of orris root to heal their aching gums. Irises were used to make garlands in olden days. The iris proudly appears in several paintins of the Virgin Mary and the archangel Gabriel. The iris is used in making perfumes and amulets made from it were used to protect people and animals from bad magic and evil spirits!

The iris is supposed to be a symbol of faith, victory, and conquest. But it also signifies pain!

One kind of Iris was discovered by a plant hunter named George Forrest who brought many gorgeous plants for gardeners to enjoy all over the world! It was named in his honour – called Iris forrestii! This amazing man who fought the most horrific battles against blizzards, droughts, raging rivers, brutal robbers, furious police, dreadful disease, to bring back new plants for his country, wrote a piece called ‘’The perils of Plant-Collecting’. It is a chilling version of his terrifying escape from warring lamas, death and torture in 1905! No wonder then, that many plants have had the honour to be named after this brave plant hunter.

It was as if this poem by Lord Tennyson was describing his life: Death closes all: but something ere the end,
Some work of noble note, may yet be done.