If Flowers had Royalty, I Think They Would be Irises

The iris speaks to my soul more than any other flower. It’s gorgeous and stately, with delicate, fragile petals but sturdy enough to grow wild. Come to think of it, I wouldn’t mind being described that way. 😊

Iris come in so many varieties and colors, and while we only get to enjoy their blooms for a few weeks in the spring, our time together is glorious while it lasts. I’ve been lucky in my iris-watching this year, as I caught them in bloom last weekend in London, and also here at Glover Gardens.

Enjoy them for a moment with me.

The first three pics are from Kew Gardens in a variety of settings: growing ‘wild’ in a meadow, against a concrete backdrop in a walled garden, and in a rock garden.

The next ones are from Hyde Park.

And these are from our yard here at Glover Gardens. The yellow ones were the first to bloom and I snapped their pic before my trip. Their spring party is over now.

When I got back, the pinkish-purple ones were blooming in their best ‘welcome home, Kim’ manner. Our plants have such good manners! I’m rather pleased with that picture.

Here’s some iris-based trivia.

I did a tiny bit of research on iris today and found out a few interesting tidbits.

Did you know that the fleur de lis symbol is based on an iris? That was news to me, but now that I know, it’s so obvious.

Iris flowers are used for both flavor and color in Bombay Sapphire gin – I didn’t know that, either.

Vincent Van Gogh’s paintings of irises were done while he was hospitalized at the asylum in Saint-Remy, France. Irises were abundant in the garden there.

Iris flowers have been associated with royalty for centuries, particularly the purple ones. Blue irises symbolize faith and hope. These are my two favorite colors of this noble flower.

In Greek, iris means rainbow, perhaps because they come in so many colors.

You can find more about irises here: Iris Meaning and Symbolism, a blog entry from The Bouq’s Co. (a premium flower purveyor in California).

I love irises because…

Perhaps my love for irises came from the way Vincent Van Gogh depicted them. I was certainly awestruck when I visited the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam last summer and saw this beauty in person.

I don’t really believe in taking photos of every painting in a museum, but couldn’t resist this one. Rest assured, though – I didn’t just snap the pic and move on. This was a painting to meditate with for a few minutes, to stop and smell the flowers, so to speak. Irises are special, and Van Gogh knew just how to capture their allure. His painting of irises in the field is spectacular, a feast for the eyes. I have to believe that these flowers spoke to him through their beauty.

The image of the painting above is from the Van Gogh Museum’s web site, which notes that Van Gogh didn’t consider Irises a major work, just a ‘study’. Irises is on the list of the most expensive paintings ever sold, selling for 54 million dollars in 1987. It’s so sad that this amazing artist never knew how much his art would speak to the world. This painting is currently on display at The Getty Center in Los Angeles, California. If I ever get there, I’ll be taking a photo of that one, too. And meditating.

I think the other reason I absolutely love irises may be even more compelling that Van Gogh: my mother loved them, too. She planted a few of them at the house where I grew up on the Texas Gulf Coast, and over the years, they spread to cover an area that was about 10′ x 20′. In the spring, there was a sea of these beautiful purple-blue flowers waving in the ocean breeze. I don’t have a picture of her irises – or at least I haven’t found one yet – but this picture from the The Bouq Co’s blog post about irises reminds me of how it made me feel.

Mom was a spectacular gardener and that’s just one of the ways I strive to be like her. The irises in my yard always bring her back to me each spring. She passed away in 2000 at only 60, but I held her close to me through the irises I carried when Dad walked me down the aisle in 2008 to ‘give me away’ to The Grill-Meister.

That’s Mom below, perhaps sometime in the late 1970s. I like to think we look a little alike.

Thank you for the love of irises, Mom, and the green thumb, and the appreciation of art, and teaching me how to cook, and most of all, teaching me what’s important.

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