Songfacts®:

• Purple irises traditionally represent faith, wisdom and admiration, inspired by the Ancient Egyptian goddess Iris, a messenger between heaven and earth. But for Gwen Stefani and Blake Shelton, these blooms transcend tradition; they become a living testament to the unyielding spirit of love.
  
  In this duet, Stefani and Shelton reminisce about love and its timeless qualities. The lyrics evoke the depth of their union, symbolized by the resilience of purple irises.
• Gwen Stefani wrote the country-pop ballad with Jakob Hazell, Niko Rubio, and Svante Halldin. The inspiration stemmed from a patch of purple irises the two singers transplanted while quarantined on Shelton's Oklahoma ranch.
  
  "Basically in 2020 Blake and I were in quarantine in Oklahoma on the ranch and we were exploring with the kids and with everybody and we found this patch of purple irises and we figured must have been like from this like Old Homestead that maybe a hundred years old someone must have planted them years ago," Stefani explained in a video. "So, we started pulling them all out and we transplanted them nearer to where we were living at the time and then years later, it became like this garden and it was like 'Wow, we were part of doing this, whoever originally planted these now they're in our garden.' It was just one of those like wow years are going by and now these are going to be here forever and we got to be part of that and so that kind of represents just our love growing in a way and how you can plant seeds and how you can watch love grow I would say this song to sum it up."
  
  Stefani added that "Purple Irises" is a love song that's like a Polaroid of a feeling of a moment. "Within that snapshot kind of talking yourself out of what you were thinking and saying like snap out of it the truth is this like you're picking purple irises with your best friend."
• Stefani and Shelton recorded the song with producer Scott Hendricks at Smoakstack Studios in Nashville. The musicians are:
  
  Todd Lombardo: acoustic guitar
  Sam Bergeson: electric guitar, slide guitar, bass guitar, percussion, electric piano, synthesizer
  Tom Bukovac: electric guitar
  Tony Lucido: bass guitar
  Fred Eltringham: drums
  Paul Moak: synthesizer
• Shelton and Stefani began their relationship while appearing as coaches on the singing competition program The Voice. They married in 2021 and have collaborated on several previous occasions. Those include:
  
  "Go Ahead and Break My Heart" (2016)
  "You Make It Feel Like Christmas" (2017)
  "Nobody But You" (2020)
  "Happy Anywhere" (2020)
• Gwen Stefani's passion for gardening bloomed alongside her relationship with Blake Shelton. The couple have been cultivating their green thumbs since the early days of their marriage. As Stefani put it in spring 2022, "When we do things, we go big, and we're doing major gardening."
  
  This song closes Stefani's Bouquet album, a record that's heavily themed around flowers. Besides "Purple Irises," the album features other floral titles like "Marigolds," "Late to Bloom," "Empty Vase" and the title track.
  
  "Purple Irises" was the bulb from which Bouquet unfurled. "I was like, 'Oh, I get it now,'" Stefani told NME. "I can't rely on anyone else – it has to be my honest truth and my musical direction. And once I got that confidence from that song, it all started to happen pretty fast."
• During the pandemic, Gwen Stefani rekindled her creative spark while embracing life on Blake Shelton's Oklahoma farm. Amid homeschooling her kids and baking bread, Gwen found inspiration in the wildflowers and rural lifestyle she shared with Blake. When they discovered a century-old homestead surrounded by purple irises, they decided to transplant the flowers, and it became a metaphorical and literal foundation for "Purple Irises." The track reflects both her deep bond with Blake and the insecurities that arise even in strong relationships, showing her vulnerable and introspective side.