Warren, Connecticut. Irises start out as pencil-like buds that open up into glorious blooms and as they go by the petals curl up like hair that’s been wound around curlers. I enjoy each stage in this flower’s annual cycle, including the march into old age. One difference between an iris’s old age and a human’s is that irises are perennials, they get to march into old age yearly while we humans just get to do it once, unless of course we believe in reincarnation. Maybe irises are Buddhists or maybe Buddhists are perennials.