If the snowdrop is a Victorian nightie, an iris is a cocktail dress that offers a dollop of pizzazz on a colourless March morning
From unprepossessing little bulbs – not unlike a fat, hairy clove of garlic – these miniatures arrive in the depths of nearly spring. I’ve grown them since I started experimenting with gardening on a north-facing London balcony nearly a decade ago, and they’re the one plant I’ve unfailingly grown every year since. They sum up everything I love about gardening: beauty, surprise, resilience and sweet anticipation – a dollop of wonder on an otherwise ordinary March morning.
