What a Surprise!

 I went out on the deck this morning to see how the rock garden was looking in the rain. We had another 0.4 inches, and then it drizzled all morning. I was shocked to see some large pink flowers across the top of the garden. The color got blown out in the photo, but they are pink.

I rushed out there to take a closer look.

Meanwhile in an alternate universe where I've been working on plant records, I had a tag for a plant I bought on an end-of-season sale last year that was somewhat beat up and past flowering for the year. I could not find where in the garden I had put it.

Back to the plant I couldn't identify. Well, I thought I had identified it. I've been pulling off these flowers so it wouldn't seed all over for a couple of weeks, after deciding it was common groundsel, a weedy nothing with yellow flowers that never really open. I had even brought some of the seed pods inside to study under magification in hopes it might be one of the not-so-common groundsels.

It was spreading like wildfire, sending babies everywhere, and acting in so many ways like a weed. Since the greenery looked pretty good, and I had nothing pressing to put in that space I decided to leave it be until I got something better. (What a stroke of luck or laziness or providence!)

Then the two worlds collided! This was my missing plant. What the heck? Turns out the groundsel leaves are just similar enough to the leaves of the desired plant that I was totally fooled. I suspect the weed came in the pot with the purchased plant since I've never seen it on my property before. I pulled out the flower stalks for the weed, and looked closer at the desired plant. It's covered with buds, and clearly not the groundsel.

No, this is Oenothera berlandieri 'Siskiyou.' It's a primrose, and supposedly it thrives in dry sandy soil. Well, I can provide that, and it sure is happy. It is supposed to bloom almost all summer. the raindrops on the flower make me smile. OK, the whole story makes me smile.

It's spreading so fast, I've already decided on another space I will split it to.

In other news, I edited for others and myself until my eyes were crossed. Since then, I've been working on plant records. It's a little too wet to actually play in the dirt.

See The Rock Garden Eats More Plants and Rocks