This white iris started blooming in my garden this week. I have never seen one so early. Although I planted nearly 200 irises in fall of 2008, this was one of the bunch that already existed in my garden. Most of the irises that came with the house were planted in an area of overgrown shrubs, and were in too much shade. The rest were along the driveway, also an area of mostly shade.

Oooh, I love surprises. There have been so many of them in my garden, things I never planted, or remember planting, springing up out of nowhere. Our very long driveway is lined with a patchy, weedy mess that is slowly eroding away but at one point someone had gardened there.

I hesitate to call this iris heirloom, or suggest its name, but that is the closest I have come so far to figuring out who might be this beautiful iris.When we first bought our house, the front and backyard surprised us in each season with all kinds of bulbs--old jonquils, rain lilies, oxblood lilies, oxalis and a lone Dutch iris oddly placed in the very abandoned part of the back yard.The more I paid attention to other old neighborhoods in Austin, I noticed all these same flowers in other yards, helping me to understand that they were not only loved...…