Candy Lily sits at an interesting crossroads in the iris family, a deliberate hybrid between Iris domestica and Iris dichotoma created by the amateur gardener Samuel Norris, whose name the species commemorates. Each bloom lasts only a single day, yet the plant keeps producing new flowers for weeks through the summer, so the fleeting nature of any individual flower becomes irrelevant against the constant churn of color. Saucer-shaped blooms arrive in yellow, orange, pink, purple, and red, making it one of the more chromatic offerings in the Iridaceae family.

A short-lived perennial by nature, it typically persists three to four years before exhausting itself, but freely self-sows to ensure its own continuation. Growing 2 to 3 feet tall in full sun to part shade, it handles summer heat and dry spells without complaint, preferring well-drained, sandy, or rocky soils kept on the lean side. In colder climates around Zone 5, a light winter mulch offers enough protection to see it through. Propagation by seed is straightforward, making it easy to build up a colony or share with neighboring gardeners.