When I moved into this house, as I have mentioned, there was basically no landscaping to speak of. That is, except 3 roses, some iris, the tropical lily thing, a yuca (why anyone would ever in Portland!) and some basic annuals along the front porch. Most of the annuals died in the frost last fall except for some snap dragons, which wintered-over and are doing great. Score! The yuca is doing its thing and hasn’t made me angry enough to rip out. But the real surprise has been the roses and the iris.

I know most people adore roses, but I find them too high-maintenance and fiddley to be worth it. And I don’t like plants that can stab me. However, after a good pruning these are all doing great and already have blooms. The one at the back of the house is particularly lovely.

A lovely surprise

Like roses, Iris don’t really do much for me. This is especially surprising considering I have a great aunt or second cousin or something that actually bred iris and named a variety after me — DeAnna’s Daughter. I assume it was named for me since I did meet her when I was 12 or something and I am the only one of my mother’s daughters that cares a fig about gardening. Long after she named the plant after me (:-?) and I was taking care of my parent’s house in Loveland, Colo., she called looking for my mom and we chatted for over an hour. She called back several times and I found her to be a delightful, if overly chatty woman. Sadly, I don’t think I know of anyone who has a DeAnna’s Daughter iris and I have no idea what it looks like. Second cousin/great aunt has since died and her business was liquidated. Google has failed me. Sad.

Not sad is the showy display of the iris in my new front yard.

Lovely iris in the front yard