Pinked

Not quite sure how this happened. I didn’t seek out pink.

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But it arrived anyway, on some great plants like the annual knotweed, Polygonum orientale, a 6-footer with splashy variegated leaves.

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And when I decided to go passiflora shopping, ruddy pink arrived on the diminutive passionflower P. sanguinolenta. (Passiflora grows like kudzu in zone 10, and a judicious selection is key.)
This may not be the passionflower for me, so it’s confined to a pot for now. If I’d known they bloom on such small plants, lots more summer containers would be draped with passionflowers.

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Palest pink hitched a ride on the maple-leaved begonia, B. partita.

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And snuck in on cat’s paws with this Asarina scandens vine, which I could’ve sworn was labeled a white variety.

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More reddish pink arrived when, having to choose an iochroma, I decided against the purple. Orangey-gold would have been preferable. (Is there a gold iochroma?)
But with such a great plant, choosing the flower color is just quibbling. Pick one or the other or another color, but choose iochroma, even if only for containers where this tropical is not hardy.
The red is Iochroma coccinea. I have no idea now why I decided against purple. Probably because the red is less ubiquitous, but that would be a silly reason, right?

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Not that there’s anything wrong with pink. I’m just surprised there’s so much this summer.
This little tropical area is almost a ghetto of pink flowers. But choice has always been guided by consideration of the overall plant first, with color last for me.
So some summers, getting pinked occasionally happens. For “pink eye,” Euphorbia mellifera is the perfect antidote. So soothing.

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And the big leaves of the ‘Siam Ruby’ banana are helping to keep everybody in line as well.

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1 Response to Pinked

  1. Careful, Grace (of the blog Gardening with Grace) is going to be stalking you with all of those pink flowers!

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