SOMETIMES WISH we had called our daughter Iris, although she might not have thanked us for it. For me, it is a name of infinite romance, since Iris was the Greek goddess whose task it was to carry messages between heaven and earth, crossing between them by a rainbow bridge that she painted in the sky. And, what’s more, she wore a coat of many colours to do it. It’s such an appealing conceit that it’s, as no other group of plants can boast such colour variety. Since childhood, I have loved irises in almost all their iterations because of that mad generosity, which – depending on the kind of iris – enriches the garden from late January until mid-June.
