Iris versicolor ‘Purple Flame’ surprisingly shares the purple tones of its graceful flowers with its emerging, early spring foliage. The pointed, aubergine-tinged leaves, eventually changing to green as the weather warms, are reason enough to love this Iris. In late spring and early summer, the show turns to the blue-violet blooms borne upon handsome dark stems. Beloved by butterflies and hummingbirds, the flowers exhibit golden signals upon their falls, which serve as nectar guides for bumblebees and other native bees that also pollinate this Iris. The clump-forming plants, which are especially effective planted en masse, tolerate wet soils such as those found at the edge of ponds.
