The Border as It Stands

Here it is, in full—May 2025, in a blaze of purple, mauve, acid yellow, and soft steel.

The back is lined with dark tulips (Queen of Night, still clinging on), and the stone wall gives it a whiff of a Roman ruin. There’s something restrained, almost architectural, about this year’s display. A final nod to its original formal intention before we let it get a little looser, a little loucher.

“And is there honey still for tea?”
— Rupert Brooke, who clearly never tried to weed around Alliums in May.

This is the Iris Border’s final spring in its current form—what began as a gravel-edged experiment in bearded irises and Allium firecrackers is poised to evolve. The design will deepen, the palette will shift, and the title of the piece will change. But before that transformation into The Benton Border, it’s only right to take a moment to honour what’s here—and what it has given.

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The Present Cast

Framed against the old stone dyke, the border is in glorious crescendo. The Allium ‘Gladiator’ rise like purple punctuation marks—exclamation points, really—amid a sea of swords and blooms. They tower, they hum with bees, and they’re not above stealing focus.

But the irises are the soul. Their flowering is brief, operatic, and tinged with tragedy—their curtain calls often last no more than a week. This year, the leading roles belong to:

• Iris ‘Blue Valley’ – silky, cloud-soft, and just a touch melancholy. She hums a blue note through the border.

• Iris ‘Benton Menace’ – a swashbuckler of a bloom: dark velvet falls, golden beard, and a name that suggests he’s either a villain or a misunderstood anti-hero. Probably both.

• Iris ‘Loreley’ – a strange and electric beauty, her yellow petals marked with inky purple veins like someone’s been scribbling poetry in fury.

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What Comes Next

The Benton irises are rising—more Menace, more Daring, perhaps even a Deirdre. The border will shift toward that palette of smoky mauves, ochres, and dusk-washed wine tones that the Benton line does so well. It will be looser, more theatrical. The Alliums will remain—because they refuse to leave—but other companions may join the chorus.

This post marks the final dress rehearsal of the Iris Border, as it once was. Next year, it will be The Benton Border. Same stage. New play.

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🛠️ The Transformation Begins

Once the last iris has wilted and the Alliums have spent their fireworks, the real work begins. Around mid-July, the Iris Border will undergo its metamorphosis into the Benton Border. The existing irises will be lifted and split, with only Benton Menace returning to take his rightful place. The Allium ‘Gladiator’ bulbs will be carefully lifted and stored while the soil is amended—more grit will be dug in to improve drainage and better suit the new cast.

Then the replanting begins: Benton Menace will be joined by four new irises from the celebrated Benton stable—Benton Apollo, Benton Caramel, Benton Nigel, and Benton Susan—each bringing their own painterly poise to the palette. The Alliums will return to punctuate the display, and the border will be finished with a crisp new edge: a living fringe of Lonicera nitida ‘Baggesen’s Gold’, bright as stage footlights and twice as disciplined.