A RARE iris named after the town of Bromyard has been rediscovered by detective gardeners.

The Bromyard Iris helped the team win first prize at the Malvern Spring Gardening Show earlier this month.

The Bromyard in Bloom committee spent seven months tracking down the rare flower, originally grown by gardener John Taylor.

He named it after Bromyard when he visited the town's horticultural society in the 1970s, but over the years it seemed to have disappeared.

After investigations at Chelsea Flower Show and the Royal Horticultural Society in Wisley, the Bromyard in Bloom committee eventually found an Australian gardener who was growing the iris in his Shropshire garden.

Now a few plants have been brought back to Bromyard and are growing in the town.

Committee member Gill Churchill said she was very pleased the iris had won a prize after all the hard work involved in finding it.