Dear All; It seems one can never stop learning things. I have often noticed in France, Iris with blue flowers, no doubt Iris germanica, being grown close to where there are public washing places for clothes, most commonly seen now in villages and small towns. On my recent visit, January/early February, I found out when doing their washing, a portion of the root was placed into the water as this made all linens brighter, especially white items. Way back when, in England, we used to throw a little blue bag into the wash, the product was, simply known as 'blue' & always wrapped in a piece of blue cloth, and it indeed made the water blue. Just what this product was I do not know. Could it have been derived from an Iris root? Has anyone come across such use of an Iris root? Perhaps we should try. Cheers, John E. Bryan