Heritage Irises

摘要

For the ancient Greeks, Iris was the goddess of the rainbow, who carried messages between earth and sky. It seemed obvious to identify her with the three-petaled flowers whose colors brightened European streambeds and meadows. The iris often is acclaimed as the stylized flower depicted in the fleur-de-lis, the symbol of French royalty since the 12th century. With its tall, slender leaves and elegantly formed flowers, it was a common motif in Art Nouveau. There are more than 300 species of irises fromall the temperate regions of the world, including North America, and natural hybrids are common. Garden cultivars had appeared in Europe by the 16 th century and followed settlers to the New World. A big boom in breeding came after 1830, and by 1939, the American Iris Society (AIS) counted more than 19,000 iris species and hybrids, with more introduced every year.