Harlequin Blue Flag

Iris versicolor blooms are eagerly looked forward to each year May into August by some of us iris lovers, and is otherwise known as blue flag. As kids we all called it wild iris. There was something about the native plants growing up among us with ‘wild’ attached to their names that appealed directly to what we knew as children running around wild ourselves all summer — that we are inseparable from nature. Wild onion, wild carrot, wild cucumber, wild us.  From some deep part within, I think we wished we knew more than we did about the plants around us so that we could sample and forage and live that part of ourselves as human animals. The “flag” in it’s common name appears to derive from Middle English, “flagge”, referring to the

Blue flag prefers wet areas for its roots to grow, sending its long blade-shaped leaves upward, with a flower stalk bearing gorgeously patterned, velvety petals. With those variegated  Harlequin indeed!