Love it when our dear friend comes to visit.  JoJo has become quite the Auntie for the twins and if one photo could sum up who she is, it would be this one of her feet with new slippers.  Of course, I went with the bright yellow and orange ones. Fun. The kids love her.  She’s been coming up to Portland from the Bay Area since we moved about 5 years ago and has even come up to take an intensive Portland Flower School course to become a certified florist.

We visited a few venues while she was here that were  loaded with flowers: The IRIS FESTIVAL and CYRSTAL SPRINGS GARDEN.

I had always thought the IRIS to be a bit frivolous.  I mean how many more purple irises does one need in this world? They seem to grow by the 10’s, 100’s even just in my neighborhood alone.  Well, I have been educated. The Iris Festival exposed me to  hundreds of irises and I now have  an appreciation for this charismatic and prolific bud.  Just the names alone: Polished Manners, Again and Again, Spiced Custard, Ever Cool, Let’s Elope…inspire want. These kind of events feel so quintessentially OREGON. The festival runs through the end of May.

To top it off, it was Mother’s Day weekend. You can pick up a unique iris specimen for $15-$25.  The real fun is with the cut flowers that are $6 for a dozen. Jo was in her element and gathered up enough irises to make a beautiful arrangement for me, my mother in law and my mother, not to mention a corsage for my mother to wear to church.