Pretty pictures: Pinkish Red

Pressed for time again -- we were elsewhere for a good chunk of yesterday.

Most of these were taken at the ex-job; the rose was at Lowe's.

Dianthus NOID. I should know what the variety is: it's the same thing we sold during the two springs I worked there. I just forgot, and there's no time to try to look for the ID.

Lamprocapnos x 'King of Hearts.' I regret not getting a clearer photo of the foliage on this one; it seemed different. Not that I'm hugely familiar with bleeding-heart foliage.

NOID Cattleya alliance orchid.

Paeonia 'Hoki.' ('Tis the season.)

Cyclamen persicum NOID. If anybody still remembers my Cyclamen experiment from last fall: it looked worse, and worse, and worse, and worse, and then I moved it to the (cool, humid) basement under shop lights, and it's doing massively better. Among other things, it's growing HUGE leaves. Which I guess is good. I was getting sick of it and considering throwing it out, so it's shaping up just in time, pretty much.

Rosa 'Radtko' (doubled knock-out rose). I'm sure there are roses out there that I could find interesting and exciting, but I haven't run into them at Lowe's. Not that I expected to. I'm just saying.

Dianthus NOID. Dianthus were one of my favorites to sell, at the ex-job; they smelled nice, and I enjoyed deadheading them. I'm not currently growing any, and probably won't in the near future, because we're still working on establishing a raised bed in the backyard, and even if we had a bed already I maybe still wouldn't grow any because I don't know if I'd want to, but they were nice, occupationally speaking.

Pretty pictures: Dianthus cvv.

Very little time to write, and not a whole lot of comments spring to mind on these anyway. They're in full bloom, though. Although I've seen more than once the "clove-like" fragrance referred to, and although I've smelled the fragrance, I'm not sure where the "clove-like" comes from. They don't smell like cloves to me.

Pretty picture: Dianthus cv. 'Black Cherry Wild'

I didn't even notice the flower when I passed by this plant the first half-dozen times I passed it, the day this picture was taken. Once I did notice it, though, I became kind of intrigued. It's an unusual color for a flower (the color in the picture is fairly accurate), and since the only Dianthus I was familiar with before this were the bright white, searing red, and glow-in-the-dark pink of the annual type we sell, this was even more of a revelation.

I don't know if I'd want one in my yard. (I'm not sure I want a yard, either, as far as that goes.) But it's oddly compelling all the same.

Pretty picture: Dianthus chinensis 'Floral Lace Crimson' flower

And back to work again, I guess. My head is a brick of snot, so I can't really hear anything, and I was up for a little while last night with a sore throat, so I'm tired, and I'm not the greatest at thinking coherently, but maybe I won't need to hear anything or stay conscious, and I was never the best at thinking coherently when it comes to work, so we can at least give it a try.

I'm not, overall, all that impressed with the Dianthus: they're fine, but they don't bowl me over with gorgeousness or anything. Nevertheless, this is one of my better recent photos, I think.