I’m sorry about that title. I didn’t mean to order you around, but I’m hoping that one of you gardeners will recognize this blossom. I noticed it while my friend Connie and I were exploring a tiny community garden here in Kilgore, Texas (I told you about this lovely East Texas town last summer and showed you many pictures).
The garden is called the “Shakespeare Garden” and I’m told it is patterned after the “original Shakespeare Garden in England,” whatever that means. All the plants, flowers and shrubs in it are native to England and referenced in several Shakespeare plays. Most of the plants had labels … and of course, if it was labeled it was one I recognized anyway.
This one, however, was nameless. Do you know it?
Did I just hear one of you smart alecks say, “That’s Ophelia?” That isn’t what I meant, and you know it.
Now, it isn’t a matter of life or death; I just would like to find it for my own garden (if it will grow in my neck of the woods). And, there are no prizes if you tell me what plant it is. But, if you do know the answer, everyone who reads will think, “Wow! [Your name goes here] is so smart!
Other posts you might enjoy:
- Her Name is Zebrina
- An Evening With The Bored, er I mean Bard
- Getting Down And Dirty
- Doubled Mint
- Soup’s On
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{ 8 comments }
No clue but it certainly is pretty. Good luck with finding out the name of the flower.
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Well of course it isn’t Ophelia, because it isn’t floating in water! Sorry, couldn’t resist.
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Looks like some sort of Anemone to me.
In Ovid’s “Metamorphoses”, Venus turns the blood of Adonis into an Anemone.
Although I don’t think Anemone is mentioned by name in Shakespeare’s “Venus and Adonis”, it’s description is given as follows:
By this, the boy that by her side lay kill’d
Was melted like a vapour from her sight,
And in his blood that on the ground lay spill’d,
A purple flower sprung up, chequer’d with white,
Resembling well his pale cheeks and the blood
Which in round drops upon their whiteness stood.
It looks like some sort of dianthus to me, which the folks of Shakespeare’s time would have called “pinks” or maybe “gillyflowers.” (I don’t know how to spell that.) There are a huge number of varieties, they’ll certainly grow in Texas (as well as just about everywhere else), and you’ll probably never regret having them in your garden. They are near relatives of the carnation. I can’t think of a scholarly quote, but I can think of two non-scholarly ones:
A white (a white) sportcoat (sportcoat) and a piiiiiink carnation.
I’m all dressed up for the dance…
or maybe
Hot July brings cooling showers, apricots, and gillyflowers.
Totally off topic, but have you seen the youtube video, Ophelia’s Sassy Gay Friend? Very funny.
I wish I could see the leaves better, kind of looks like a perennial geranium or maybe a gilliflower? check out the link: http://www.darwincountry.org/explore/003931.html?sid=
It is a Hollyhock. I can’t remember the exact variety, but they do not get very tall. If it comes to me I’ll be back…..shoot I hate it when I can’t remember. But I have not doubt it is a Hollyhock.
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I agree with Sheila. I didn’t have a clue when I read this a few days ago. We took a friend to Log Cabin Village this past weekend and there in the herb garden was this exact flower! It was labeled hollyhock.
I’ve been trying to figure out what plant this might be. Indeed, it looks a little bit like an anemone, and it looks like gillyflower. But, I’m thinking that Sheila and Pat may have it right with hollyhock! I’ve looked at some pictures of hollyhock that certainly seem to be the same. Maybe I’ll just call the gardens!
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