Flower for the Day Dwarf Iris 3-6-26

This time of year the garden is brown and looks empty, until you bend over

and look closer. Today these little dwarf iris (Iris reticulata) appeared in multiples. 

I would swear they were not here yesterday. The gnome garden is a treasure trove.

These are so early that the bright yellow center ridges on the outer petals have 

not yet appeared.

 

It is also called the snow iris, netted iris or golden netted iris. It is characterised by 

a fibrous net surrounding the bulb. The leaves appear after flowering. Like other irises, 

it has two types of tepals, three large sepals (outer petals), known as the "falls", and 

three inner, smaller petals known as the "standards". 

Here is a Borges poem again from Katie.

 

                       Things

My cane, my pocket change, this ring of keys,

The obedient lock, the belated notes,

The few days left for me will not find time

To read, the deck of cards, the tabletop,

A book and crushed in its pages the withered

Iris, monument to an afternoon

Undoubtedly unforgettable, now forgotten,

The mirror in the west where a red sunrise

Blazes its illusion. How many things,

Files doorsills, atlases, wine glasses, nails,

Serve us like slaves who never say a word,

Blind and so mysteriously reserved.

They will endure beyond our vanishing;

And they will never know that we have gone.

Jorge Luis Borges

Essentially all things in their illusion, even the iris, will never

know that we were here.