It’s funny to reflect on a flower — the iris — that was such a staple of my family’s garden growing up, was something so ordinary, expected, uninteresting. And now, no longer when removed from its usual spot in my memory. I’m now a country apart, living in a vastly different climate that I’m used to. Perhaps it was a subtle nod to these memories that I scooped up these bearded irises a week or so back. They were completely stunning. Entirely closed upon arrival, they expanded and contracted, blossoming then dying, one bud after another. It lasted well over one glorious week. Money well spent.