Dwarf irises bring colour and glamour to the start of spring

If the snowdrop is a Victorian nightie, an iris is a cocktail dress that offers a dollop of pizzazz on a colourless March morning Every year, it's the same: I am caught out by the violet flash of Iris reticulata and it makes my day. Being the first flowers of the year to bloom, snowdrops get a lot of hoo-ha, but irises offer a spangly cocktail dress to the Galanthus's fey Victorian nightdress: bolder, showier and sometimes in leopard-print shoes. From unprepossessing little bulbs - not unlike a ...