Pretty plantings

When we moved into our Oklahoma house 2 and a half years ago I decided it needed a bit of sprucing up on the outside. OK, maybe I was bored in rural Oklahoma. Whatever. It gave me something to do. I did lots of research for a pretty flowering vine for the front yard and a climbing rose for the back yard. I spent hours narrowing the plants down for the proper hardiness zone, amount of light received, color of flowers, climbing capabilities, evergreen leaves (for the front yard), reblooming properties, etc, etc, until I finally found what I thought were the perfect plants: a cross vine (bignonia) for the front porch planter and an antique rose (Crepuscule) for the back patio. I read about them online, and then spent gobs MORE time finding them at reputable gardens for a decent price. I lovingly planted them and then waited for their fabulousness. And waited. And waited some more.

My completely awesome, well-researched, PERFECT plants were not performing!!! Sure, they were growing, but where were all of the flowers? I need quick results from plants because we're never around long enough for me to see just how beautiful a plant will be after, say, 5 years of growth. These poor plants didn't bloom much the first year. I had high hopes for the second year, but was again disappointed. Then...

I walked out onto the front porch one day and saw my beautiful cross vine looking like this:

And few days later my rose set a bunch of blooms too:


I'm so glad I got to see these plants look beautiful, even if it was right as we got ready to leave them behind. Hopefully they will entice another plant-loving person to rent our old house so they'll have someone to love them and treat them well.

Here's Colin with our base-housing iris