Iris Garden

The rich gamut of colours of the Iris Garden with its terraces and decorative stone slabs can be admired in June when hundreds of irises bloom on the sunny slope descending behind the old town wall. Irises form a genus (Iris of the family Iridaceae.

Only two species – yellow flag iris (Iris pseudacorus) and Siberian iris (Iris sibirica) – grow in the wild in Estonia. In decorative gardening, irises have been cultivated for centuries and are considered a delicate and capricious plant. To date, the breeding work carried out in Europe, America, Australia and elsewhere has given us more than 50,000 new iris cultivars.

The Iris Garden at the Botanical Garden in Tart was created in 1997 and its collection currently holds close to 60 cultivars, among them some of the world's best large-flowered ones. The breeding of garden iris cultivars has been taken up by recreational gardeners also in Estonia and it is the Botanical Garden that has been entrusted with preserving the results of their work.