'Katharine Hodgekin' ...

It's the name of a Hybrid which was bred by E.B. Anderson in 1958 and named after the wife of Eliot Hodgkin (1900 -1972) a large breeder of rare bulbs.

A pale blue and yellow colored dwarf iris. According to the information on the package you can see them grow and bloom in the month of February. That is, when you plant the bulbs inside. Because these bulbs increase more rapidly in a cold frame or bulb frame than outdoors.

That's not what we did. We planted them in in a large earthenware pot and covered that with garden waste (leaves and branches) against the winter cold. They didn't flourish in February by the sustaining cold weather. But this morning, the first day with a temperature above 20ºC after a long time, the flowers were fully opened.

The petals were covered with big drops from a rain shower in the early morning. Nature brought me my blip for today ... ;)