After months of wet weather and sunless skies it seems that spring has arrived, if a day later than in the UK! Last night it was drizzly and 9c at 10pm but I woke to cloudless views out of every window and a sharp frost. The day got better as the frost melted and plants seemed to grow more today than in the past month. The race to flower has started and some have astounded me in the past 12 hours.

The first two flowers among other bulbs and echiums

One of the most welcome sights was the first two flowers on the first Iris aucheri. I planted 20 of these beautiful Juno iris and 50 of the cheaper I. bucharica in a bed at the top of a 70cm retaining wall. It is theoretically well drained but the soil behind it is very wet, or has been for the past few months. But the soil is not very deep here and is light so I hope that these bulbs will be happy here. Last summer everything I put in here struggled because it was so dry but then it was a dry summer. Anyway, so far so good.

The Juno iris are very special and do not have normal bulbs and have thick, fleshy roots that should be healthy when you plant them. The plants look a bit like leeks and flowering -size bulbs produce a central stem with one or more flowers that open from the top down. Juno iris have standards that are small and hang down or horizontally and have a crest on the falls where the beard would be on a bearded iris.

Iris aucheri is one of the earliest of the group to emerge in spring and is fairly easy to buy and grow – most need careful cultivation because they come from areas that are dry in summer. It is native to south east Turkey, northern Iran and Syria. The flowers are typically pale blue but they vary a lot and they are fragrant though I must admit that I forgot to sniff these this morning.

iris aucheri, iris bucharica