Tuesday, March 24, 2009

Pretty pictures: Clarkia 'Satin'

. . . Aaaaaaand we're back from hiatus. I got much less done (in terms of the blog) than I had hoped, but that's sort of always the case.

These are pictures of Clarkia 'Satin.' The tags actually said Godetia, but davesgarden.com says that Clarkia is current now, a number of other sites more or less confirmed that, and anyway thinking the word Godetia makes me feel like I'm in a cheerleading movie ("Go Deesha! Go Deesha! Go, go, go Deesha!").


I had never heard of this plant before: we didn't get any last year (these came in through the flower shop). A bit of googling, and asking co-workers, and . . . well, so I've heard of it now. They don't seem to be grown around here, and although I found information about their preferences and stuff, said information contradicted itself, so I'm still not very clear on it. One thing that everybody seemed quite emphatic about is that they go by the common names "atlasflower" (dunno what Atlas has to do with anything, but it's the sort of thing flowers get named, so wev) and "farewell to spring" (which is bizarre and a little ominous).

But they're pretty, which is the point.


I have no idea if these can be grown inside, but I'd bet probably not outside of a greenhouse.

Anyone wishing to express amazement that I hadn't heard of Clarkia/Godetia before now (I know somebody out there must be thinking that) is invited to do so in the comments.


5 comments:

Unknown said...

I'm in the same boat as you, I have heard the name although have never seen one before. Beautiful.

Anonymous said...

Never heard of it either, and welcome back! You were missed.

Anonymous said...

I've heard the name before, but I don't think I've ever seen them. Oddly enough, just this weekend, I was wondering what they looked like (however, I can't for the life of me remember why I thought of them).

Rosemary Waigh said...

I sure hope they can grow outside, because I bought some seeds from the Canadian Stokes catalogue. The ones I have, Clarkia amoena, are annuals.

Anonymous said...

For all of you who grow annual flowers, I have to say that Godetia/Clarkia (I've bought them under both names) make great garden plants. Lovely flowers, nice texture, do well when cut for bouquets, easy to grow and pest free in my garden at least. Nice colors, too. I have no idea whether they could be used as house plants, but many garden annuals are sold as such when in bloom - just don't expect eternal life from them. I'm a Zone 3 gardener, soil mostly stone (!) and had no problems with them at all. Good luck.