Cedric Morris Irises
And a sudden explosion of colour in my garden
Over the past week or two I have been over to Suffolk for a wonderful visit to see Sarah Cook’s collection of Benton irises, spent a very hot weekend in the garden, and done a talk at the Garden Museum about the power of gardens in war-torn Ukraine. Here are my diary entries.
May 22nd
‘Stop!’ I screech as Andrew drives at 40mph down a country lane. ‘It’s got to be that one.’ We have just driven past a house with a sea of crimson oriental poppies at the front, and although we’re here to see irises, I know it must be the one. We reverse at speed and pull in to the driveway to see a large bed full of irises at the back of the house, as well as the most phenomenal drifts of crimson Tulipa sprengeri. Jim Marshall and his wife Sarah Cook live here, and we’re here to photograph Sarah’s precious collection of Cedric Morris’s irises, often known colloquially as the Benton irises.
Morris bred around 95 named irises, raising about 1000 seedlings a year and obsessively selecting the colours that appealed to him as an artist. I was first introduced to the Benton irises by Dan Pearson who gave me some offsets from his own collection a few years ago. I had no idea what I was choosing, but I ended up with ‘Strathmore’, ‘Nutkin’ and ‘Opal’, which are now growing happily in gravel in my garden. Like so many other people I have fallen in love with them, and since then I have learnt more about Cedric’s irises and the beguiling colours he created. I have seen the paintings he made of his beloved irises and swooned. And I have been to Benton End to see his garden coming back to life.
