Irises, with their velvet flowers and dagger leaves, look like they need pampering and protection and yet most enjoy mean and rough conditions – in the soil department at least. These are rewarding and relatively trouble-free plants which flower from winter until July.

1. Iris colours range from red, orange, yellow, purple, blue, green to white. This is why they are named after the Greek goddess of the rainbow, Iris, daughter of Electra.

2. Most irises like full sun and poor soil although Pacific Coast iris, and the rank-smelling but beautiful I. foetidissima, will flower in light shade.

3. Rhizomatous iris, which include bearded and beardless plants, are usually used in borders and ponds. Bulb irises include the exquisite winter-flowering purple I. reticulata.

Gardening tips: ten things you need to know about tree peonies

BACKGROUND

• Gardening tips: ten things you need to know about trowels

• Gardening tips: ten things you need to know about wormeries

• Gardening tips: ten things you need to know about irises

• Gardening tips: ten things you need to know about slugs

51 glorious garden websites

Times Online's gardening guru opens her address book to share her top pick of gardening websites

Related Internet Links

• A ten step guide for novice gardeners

• The gardening year planner - what to do, when

• Guides for vegetable growers

BACKGROUND

• A gardener's guide to healing herbs and flowers

• Fruit bushes: what to grow and how to get a good crop

• Plant it now: a beginner's guide to snowdrops

• Neil Wormald’s week: a potted guide to growing chillies

• A guide to making a great patio garden

BACKGROUND

• A year in the garden: tasks for every season

• How to start a vegetable garden

• Twenty vegetable catalogues

• Eight great vegetable gardening books

BACKGROUND

• Growing kinds of chilli. . .

• Go ahead, pack it in

• Seeds of change

• Dolce vita on a plate

• Salad days that last forever

BACKGROUND

• Let’s not lose the plots

• A plot on the land

• Seeds of change

• There's life in the allotment

• One potato, two potato...

4. Iris rhizomes have to be planted so that half the rhizome appears above the soil. They need to be divided and replanted every three years.

5. Iris bulbs are best planted 4-8 inches deep and divided every few years as the leaves go over.

6. Spring is a good time to order rhizomatous iris which can be planted when they arrive in July-August.

7. Iris specialists include: Seagate Iris; Cayeux (Chelsea Flower Show regulars); Claire Austin; Woottens Plants which has the world’s most beautiful catalogue and website; and Iris of Sissinghurst

8. Overwatering will encourage rot. Leaf spot, which begins at the tips of the leaves with speckles of brown and yellow, is encouraged by wet weather. Cut off diseased areas as they appear.

9. Claire Austin’s book, “Irises – A Garden Encyclopedia” tells you all you’ll ever need to know about this plant.

10. Iris unguicularis is an outrageously ugly name for a beautiful plant which is why I, along with a lot of the gardening community, call it by its old name, I. stylosa. One of my favourite winter varieties is the small, scented, delicate blue ‘Walter Butt’ which I have seen flowering through snow. It has decorated our Christmas table for many years.

Explore Gardens

• Hampton Court Palace Flower Show

• Chelsea Flower Show

Times recommends

• Second homes: credit crunch casualty or money-spinner?
• How I built my own sliding house
• Top 10 incentives for house buyers