Friday, 13 November 2026

Autumn Slaughter! - Iris orientalis

 

After that wild and windy week, I've been sorting out the plants which were flattened by the weather: pruning off damaged parts, re-staking anything which is now leaning dangerously, and cutting down perennial foliage which has been blown to bits.

Here we have the Iris orientalis, sometimes called Turkish Iris. Weirdly, it's not commonly known as Japanese Iris, which would be logical, what with the "oriental" part of "orientalis". Technically, "orientalis" just means "from the east" not "from Japan/China" and, according to Wikipedia, these plants originated in Turkey and Greece.

Most of the plant names originated in the UK/Sweden, thanks to the combination of the British Empire, and Linneaus, the chap who invented the plant naming conventions. So I suppose that Turkey/Greece are east of Sweden... ish.

Anyway, it's sometimes known as Turkish Iris, but it is never called Grecian Iris. Maybe that would be too close to Grecian Urn.

(Brace yourself for an awful joke: "What's a Grecian Urn?" "Oh, about 40 drachmas a week" ha ha ho ho...)

Moving on... Iris orientalis is this one:


It's tall, very upright, with cheerful white flowers, each falling petal having a bright yellow blotch, looking rather like a very under-done fried egg.

Personally.....

 

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