wow, my husband said the little crocus patch next to our house is blooming. Someone brought a beautiful branch of witch hazel to the library to display. The base of the flowers is dark burgundy but changing to yellow at the tips of the petals.

The blue flowers are iris reticulata. They are small, cheap bulbs, but are usually annuals.

I have more than a dozen reticulated irises blooming now and more sprouting daily. I haven't planted any for 2 or 3 years, but my soil is quite different from Mad gallica's, so that may be the difference in their perennial tendencies.

If they return reliably for you, you are very, very lucky. I've been in several discussion about this over the years, and so few people have them perennialize that it isn't even possible to come to conclusions about what they like. Fortunately, they are cheap. Unfortunately, few nurseries around here carry them, and mail ordering them isn't cheap because they always seem to want to bring friends :-)

I also love iris reticulate. I planted a cluster about five years ago. Two years ago the "clump" was a lonely one. Last year, nothing. So I did pretty well to get event that amount of return..