Visiting Japan--Gardens, Plants, Contrasts

Japan! I loved the contrasts

Medieval fortresses:

historic Himeji Castle

to futuristic buildings

Mikimoto main store, Ginza, Tokyo

Plant Story -- Iris, All the Colors of the Rainbow

Iris is a common garden plant all around the world.

The genus Iris, in the iris family, Iridaceae, has about 280 species, distributed all around the Northern Hemisphere, from Alaska eastward to Japan. People have been attracted to iris for a very long time--Pharoh Thutmose III had irises that he brought back from his conquest of Syria (1479 BC) painted on his tomb.