Pleasant surprises

So we do have St. Joseph's lily in bloom, after giving up. And there may be more to come. What hasn't been stolen at the old library building downtown was also in bloom today. Courtesy of our one-dollar clematis plants (we bought three from Albertsons once at 98 cents apiece), we have spectacular flowers and the plants look more vigorous than ever, so we may expect more. The pomegranate is showy right next door. And for the first time in several years, we have flowers from an old-fashioned standard bearded iris; it's a beautiful mauve-y lavender with brown cross-hatching or striping over cream on the falling petals and tinges of golden rose at the edges. It's very difficult to describe visually and it has the most wonderful sweet licorice scent. It's not where it's easy to photograph. Old Mrs. H. didn't reveal the name when she passed it along. After those tall white irises that sometimes bloom all winter long in old yards and also have a wonderful scent, these are perhaps second in popularity from that era.