A plant for our times

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This is a picture of IRIS TECTORUM Japanese Roof Iris. Apparently it was so named because, at a time in Japan when life was very hard and people starving. An Imperial decree was made prohibiting the growing of flowers .All available ground must carry food plants. So because of its special value the Iris was grown on the roofs of houses. The special use is a paste from the roots which gave the white colour to the faces of Geisha Girls.. I found all that in an article on Google. which will give a proper description of the above and much more.

I thought it seemed quite topical as we are having a similar economic down turn, lets hope it doesn’t get so bad that we too must plough up trhe lawn and plant Potatoes etc.
The flower suddenly appeared amonst leaves of Alexanders at the side of steps to my Garden Room. The leaves of the Iris were not in good condition but there was an old seed pod and to my surprise it had seeds in it. I have sown them , They have been out there all Winter so should be well stratified.