To be honest, I am not a SUPER-FAN of pink.

But in mid-November…
When it’s cloudy & drizzling…
I’m thrilled by a soft pastel pink.

Today it’s a Hesperantha.  Blooming right beside the deer route!  And this patch will bloom until a hard frost kick’s its butt.

It amazes me that these late-flowering perennials are native to sunny, South African streamsides.  Here they bloom in the light shade of our dry woodland garden.  Perhaps the thick mulch helped protect them from drying out too much this summer?

The mysteries continue… some websites call them ‘crimson flag lily‘ or ‘scarlet river lily.’ But I’ve always thought those are the crimson / scarlet versions that bloom in our sunny borders in spring ??  Perhaps they’re cousins?

What’s more, neither are actually from the lily family.  They kinda remind me of miniature gladioli. BUT they grow from a rhizome rather than a corm.

Scientists say they’re iris.  Go figure.

Can you imagine the hullabaloo & debate at one of those scientific Naming Conventions?  I figure those folks have some serious work on their agendas,
with figuring out who first claimed a name…
checking the flower specifics…
& then all the DNA analysis…

I reckon it’s during the evening cocktails when the final naming decisions happen.

Well, if you can’t choose your family, at least you can choose your friends.  I’m happy to have this friend in our garden.

-30-

PS.  Here are some more pink fall friends:

• 

  Pink as a Fall Color? – Colchicum

• 5 More Shades of Pink
• Horray for Naked Ladies – Nerine
• Back From the Dead – Amaryllis belladonna
• Apple Blossom Camellia