Charles Quest-Ritson on the irises to plant, the ones you’ll never manage to grow in Britain, and the ones to avoid unless you’re happy for them to take over half of your garden.
When King Clovis of the Franks converted to Christianity in AD496, he took the lily as his heraldic symbol. He chose lilies because they were associated with Mary, the mother of Jesus — not that he was a paragon of purity. Nor was he much of a botanist, for he modelled his lily upon the…
