The name Iris originated from Greek word "rainbow"

The name Iris originated from Greek word "rainbow". It takes its name from the Greek goddess who carried messages between mortals and the Mount Olympus deities. Garden irises are available in a vast variety of colors, as for cut flowers’ colors, they are often blue, white and yellow resembling the summer sky. The flower is the representative of bulbous perennials having the southern European and the Mediterranean regions origins.
The lovely plant is the part of the Iridaceae family with such common relative as freesia. In some languages, iris is called flags or sword flags, symbolizing heraldry and royalty. Japanese believe that iris’ shape displays heroism and its blue color is related to blue blood. Thus, irises play an important role in their spring holiday for boys. In addition, the Iris represents the National Emblem of France. The flower stands for ‘wisdom, hope and my compliments’.
In general the flower is considered to be a spring one, although the majority of its species are available at any season of the year in White, yellow, blue, purple colors. These dainty flowers have one of the shortest cut flower vase life’s lasting that is about 3-6 days.
Due to iris’ distinctive shapes, it is often used as form bloom in flower designs and arrangements. Beside of its height is very suitable for using it as line flowers to assist settle shapes and sizes of designs.