The great British plantsman E A Bowles once posed this question: “Suppose a wicked uncle,” he wondered, “who wished to check your gardening zeal left you pots of money on condition that you grew only one species of plant: what would you choose?”

Then the great man answered his own question: “I should settle on Iris unguicularis,” he answers. And, considering the extraordinary range of plants he grew at his garden at Myddelton House in north London, we should respect his choice.

It’s a zone 7 plant so not hardy here in Pennsylvania - well, it grows wild in North Africa - so one of the treats of going back to zone 8 England in winter is the chance to see them, and smell them too for their fragrance is wonderful. Bowles chose this plant, long ago known as Iris stylosa, as the first flower of spring and from October onwards in Britain in zone 8 the flowers appear: purplish or true blue, lavender or white, building up to a crescendo in February or March when you can gather enough flowers from a single clump to enjoy indoors and the leave the plant in the garden apparently unplundered.

There is an art to cutting these flowers for what appears to be the stem of the flower is actually an unexpectedly elongated part of the flower stem itself and only at ground level is there 3/4in/2m of true stem. Each stem usually carries not one, but three flowers. So, if you simply slice off the flower as low down as you can possibly go – and that is certainly the temptation – you will cut off those extra flower buds. But if you slide your fingers down the stem you’ll feel those other buds; cut just above them.

‘Mary Barnard’ is dark blue, ‘Walter Butt’ is a soothing, cool, pale pearly lavender while ‘Alba’, the white form can be shy. They’re all lovely.

If you’re fortunate enough to have a suitably warm border, perhaps just a narrow 2ft/60cm strip in front of a sunny wall, then Iris unguicularis will repay your planting it there with plenty of flowers. Add pink Nerine bowdenii and the white crocus-like Zephyranthes candida and the bold trumpets of Amaryllis belladonna (not those indoor monsters, the hardier one) and Agapanthus for the summer and you’ve created a border for almost al the year. Scatter a few seeds of the dainty little creamy California poppy, Platystemon californicus, and you’ll have to open the garden specially for visitors to come and admire just this one border.

But Iris unguicularis, the first choice of a long gone master plantsman, E. A. Bowles, is worth growing even without them.

In Britain, Avon Bulbs list six varieties. In North America, Plant Delights list two tempting varieties (scroll down), while Mount Pleasnt Iris also list two (scroll down).