iris

I caught these irises blooming a few weeks ago in West Vancouver.

According to my trusty Flower Expert, irises can grow from either bulbs or rhizomes. The tall bearded irises belong to the rhizome group. The bulb irises are usually smaller (I suspect the ones pictured here are bulbs.) Apparently irises come in so many varieties, they can be grown wild year-round, in water and on land.

(There were large irises in my back flowerbed when we moved here. They lasted exactly one spring before I dug them out. They were the bearded wine-yellow ones, a dithering color for a flower in the first place, and these really needed to be staked because they were so tall and heavy. I never did get around to that. Instead they lounged on the ground, their blooms lasting only a day or two before becoming brown and serving as salad for the slugs. I’m afraid they grossed me out.)

In the 11th century the iris became the emblem of France (fleur-de-lis), its three petals signifying faith, wisdom and valor. Iris is currently the state flower of Tennessee.

The meaning of iris is faith, hope, wisdom and message, or message of love.

Blue Iris is a book of poems and essays by Mary Oliver. (I think I want that book.)

Louse Gluck’s poem "Wild Iris," which takes us into the iris’s world begins:

At the end of my suffering
there was a door.

Hear me out: that which you call death
I remember.

Overhead, noises, branches of the pine shifting.
Then nothing. The weak sun
flickered over the dry surface.

(Read entire)

I hope you’re enjoying the purple and gold irises of spring!