Despite their being on the list of contents in the "Payne's No.1 Rainbow Mix" that Julia and I scattered in February, I didn't realize that these too had come up in our front yard — Clarkia amoena (also known as Godetia amoena), or farewell-to-spring. They had sprouted along with the others, but I thought that they were just mountain garland (C. unguiculata) that hadn't bloomed yet. Then, when most of the other flowers had started to fade, these burst forth, in a veritable plethora of pinks, from pink-throated white to palest purple to soft pink to unbelievably-vivid magenta. The flowers remind me of azaleas, with a similar shape and slightly-ruffly-edged petals, and with the sheer volume of blooms, crowded together in masses of pink.
They give the front yard quite a different character from six weeks ago — it's like two wildflower gardens in one packet!
A Bluestocking Knits 
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