Colour in the garden, irises and the feeling of coming home

How garden colour makes us feel

The Nurture Garden at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show, designed by Sarah Price and built by Crocus UK

This serene gathering-together of colour was at the heart of the response

Returning home in May after a week away brings with it all sorts of expectations, hopes and much finger-crossing. With the weather chilly on departure, it had been hard to imagine that in just a few days’ time, any form of temperature-warming would be pushing any hesitant plant into leaf and bloom.

You feel guilty leaving the garden - some garden-owners I know won’t even leave their garden from May to September in fear of missing any precious appearance of a fleeting flower. It’s totally understandable, too: after you’ve spent all that time, all that physical and mental energy on getting everything exactly right for your plants, why would you then disappear the very moment they started to pop?

In my case, the RHS Chelsea Flower Show was the reason why yet again I might have missed my garden’s first emergence, but due to this year’s cold spring, it seemed almost as if the plants had thoughtfully held back for me, postponing their arrival until my arrival.

And so it was, after a series of sunny days, that the very first roses and geraniums greeted me as I opened the garden gate.

It was a very special sensation as I went on that particular kind of a treasure hunt that you’ll probably be all too familiar with. The alliums, which had appeared a month ago, still held firm, busy with pollinators. There was so much more and a plant list will appear in other posts - but what struck me at this very moment was a scent, long forgotten. The irises were in bloom.

Here on The Gardening Mind we’ve previously taken a look at irises and why they are such a good plant for the RHS Chelsea Flower Show, including this: