An early flowering

Hybrid rhododendrons have found their way into gardens in regions from which the original rhododendron species were taken to England. This one resembles that old cultivar from 1896, Baroness Henry Schroeder. I think it’s only a resemblance, because that one has red splotches on the white base, but this is pink on white. It has been a warm winter in Sikkim, otherwise you wouldn’t see rhodos flowering now.

Bearded Iris

Somewhere on the streets of Kyoto we passed a small private garden with this bearded Iris. I understand that the way to recognize one is to count the petals. They have six, of which three are upright, three droop, and the drooping petals have a line of filaments, the beard, which guide insects to the nectar. As far as I know, this is not a natural species, so I’ll not quote a binomial.