Dark and mysterious, Iris ‘Black Swan’
is without doubt the star of my garden in May, when for an eagerly awaited and tantalizingly short time its elegant inky flowers take front of stage.
Available in a wide variety of colours including mouth-watering rust browns, coppers and mauves, bearded iris are easy to grow and thrive in well-drained soil in full sun.
The link between gardening and art is strong and ‘Iris Seedlings’ by Cedric Morris is a magical painting in the Tate that I loved long before I had a garden of my own.
To learn years later that the irises he painted he had also bred and raised, that some he gave to Vita Sackville West for her garden at Sissinghurst and others to Beth Chatto and that Lucien Freud and Maggie Hambling were his pupils at Benton End only adds to the special resonance that gardening holds for me.
Sitting in the garden drinking in their beauty these are the thoughts that come to mind...
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