Posted on by susurrus

Macro Monday: Iris With Ferns

Purple striped iris with ferns in the background

These plant bedfellows seem to embody contrasts and echoes. Both are linear, with some symmetry, but neither are rigidly so. I get the feeling a mathematician might find reverie here. Curves, curls – wobbles, even – add complexity and soften any harshness. Someone or something has taken a chunk out of one iris petal, but the lines and colours are so hypnotic, we hardly notice it. 

The fern seems content to play a supporting role, creating a backdrop of greenery for the iris to shine against, but look closer and it has bags of character. There’s something elemental about it. A talented child seems to have drawn the outline for the plant to fill in.

Equally elegant despite the odd flaw, the blue iris and fingery fern both have flair, their arching lines giving this little garden vignette a sense of movement. Together they are so much more than the sum of their parts.

44 Replies to “Macro Monday: Iris With Ferns”

  2. That looks like the native San Francisco iris that lives on the coastal side of the Santa Cruz Mountains in San Mateo County. They are always blue, but range from very light grayins blue, but almost navy blue. Sadly, they do not last when picked, and they do not like to live in cultivation.

      1. I seriously doubt it is a San Francisco iris, even though it looks like one. I would not know a Louisiana iris if I saw one. They are considered to be riparian here because they live in saturated soils, which we do not have much of. I only tried to grow it once, and the creek flooded more than typical, and took it away before it rooted in.

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