The city gardener: The goddess returns 

A riot of yellow bearded irises blooms on a neighbour’s front lawn.  Photo by Supplied

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I’m not sure if the recent cool, wet spring held things back a bit (which, consolingly, often produces a colourful season when things eventually bloom), but 2026 is turning out to be a banner year for irises.  

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All through my neighbourhood there are bright explosions of these regal flowers, and if I say so myself, my own are going pretty crazy too just now (and I mean that in the best possible way, of course). 

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Irises take their name from the Greek goddess of the rainbow. Sweet-natured Iris was a handmaiden of Hera and a messenger between the gods and mortals, slipping down her rainbow to deliver communiqués from heaven. Iris also symbolized hope and optimism — another reason for the romantics among us to love her and her namesake flower. 

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Down here on earth, there are something like 300 different species of irises, most of which originated in Europe, the Mediterranean and Asia. Perhaps the most familiar to Canadian gardeners is the bearded iris (iris germanica) —  the tall, sword-leafed beauty lighting up our gardens right now.  

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Its heavy, frilly blossoms, borne in multiples on tall stalks, each feature six petals: three upright “standards” and three downward-facing “falls.” In the centre between the two sets of petals is a little fuzzy tongue, an invitation to pollinators that, if you use your imagination a little bit, resembles a little goatée. (Some even have a delicious, licorice-tinged scent.) 

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Bearded irises come in almost every colour of the rainbow (probably the raison-d’être for its name), from snow white to a purple so deep it’s almost black. The only colour you don’t see is true red — but the growers haven’t stopped trying. 

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Other popular garden irises include iris reticulata or dwarf iris, which is smaller and grows from bulbs instead of rhizomes like other irises. They bloom early in spring, making them a lovely addition to an early spring border next to crocuses, snowdrops and early tulips. (There’s also a dwarf bearded type.) 

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Siberian irises (iris siberica) are the ones immortalized by Van Gogh, and have smaller blossoms and finer, more straplike leaves than the sturdy swords of bearded irises; their falls tend to stick out more horizontally as well.  

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They quickly form thick, profusely blooming clumps, which are glorious in their prime, but tend to hollow out after a few years. When that happens, dig them up, cut off the spent inner rhizomes and replant the outer healthy sections, and they’ll soon go at it again. (The same is true of bearded irises, though maybe not quite so exuberantly.) 

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There is a “wild” form of iris as well, iris pseudocorus or yellow flag iris (or blue flag, depending on its colour), that grows in marshlands and the edges of ponds. It’s technically an escapee, not a wildflower, having been imported by European gardeners a century ago, and despite its undeniable beauty is considered invasive. If you can’t bear to pull up any growing on your property, at least don’t let them spread.