I almost missed out on the week of flowers, hosted by Cathy of Words and Herbs, but am scraping in with this froth of wildflowers for day 7. The pink, raindrop-covered flower is corncockle, which is now vanishingly rare in the wild in Britain but still appears in annual wildflower mixes.
Taken in the summer wildflower border at RHS Garden Bridgewater.
Susan Rushton 
Gorgeous! The raindrops make the corncockle even prettier. I am not familiar with it, perhaps because it is so rare. Thanks for sharing! 😃
It was once very common as a agricultural weed, but no longer, to the detriment of our bees.
Your corncockle looked familiar to me but I couldn’t quite place why. Identifying its Latin name cleared that up – I’ve actually grown the white form in my garden and just planted another (Agrostemma ‘Ocean Pearls’) last week. I love that plant!
The white ones have an ethereal look.
I love the raindrops, fresh and lovely!
They are always a bonus. You’ve made me think of the corncockle as a very inadequate umbrella for the rest of the flowers.
I sowed a packet of pollinator seeds this summer and was surprised to see Corncockles appear, a rare wild flower that is pretty, and also poisonous. Apparently you should not sow it in the wild so I hope no seeds escape my garden! Sadly no cornflowers. Your raindrop photo is very attractive.
Old Herbaceous linked below to an article that might reassure you.
Yes, I have seen that article. I think the poisonous aspect refers mostly to grazing animals which may of course nibble more than is good for them. Let’s hope the naughty sheep don’t discover my flowers!
Or that corncockle tastes really nasty if they do, although if you have sheep in your garden, you’ve got more things to worry about.
Indeed! There are a lot in the field opposite now, just hope none of them decided to climb over the hedge! Though luckily my actual garden is well fenced.
We saw no sun today, our high temp was 20-something, and now suddenly I am in the midst of a wild mob of summer flowers. What a happy shock! I love your wording: a froth of wildflowers. It is that perfectly.
It’s tempting to go full on spring and summer when we look outside, especially as there are so many more winter days to come.
The very name ‘Corncockles’ made me laugh. In the process of trying to find an explanation for the name, I discovered that it’s rather common here, too. The consensus seems to be that it arrived here via grain seed, just as it traveled around Europe.
Some plants were welcome, others not… the story, they might say, of their lives.
What a funny name for a pretty flower!
It’s an agricultural weed. If you try to trace cockle back, you find words like darnel and tare that are also unfamiliar now.
Always interesting.
The froth of wildflowers look beautiful.
Wildflowers are as cheery as any.
Ah, you’ve made it to Bridgewater. What did you think of it? Love meadow mixes and really love the silky petals of agrostemma. Good pick!
I enjoyed it, especially the walled garden, but it’s still early days and some obvious improvements were needed. Shelter from the rain being the main one – it’s a NW garden after all! I have a (long overdue) post planned but am not sure if December is the right time.
I wasn’t familiar with the corncockle, but your photo is so pretty that I looked it up. Lo and behold, here’s what I found: the original kerfuffle about whether or not it is poisonous. Apparently no more so than several other beloved garden flowers, and it is endangered, so growing it is a boon to plant diversity. https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/shortcuts/2014/aug/26/corncockle-countryfile-bbc-packets-seeds-poisonous
You’re right. It was not welcome in field crops, but farmers have got field weeds well under control now, for better or worse.
I’ve been reading with concern about the impact of climate change on the UK’s unique wildflowers. Although I’m American and have never lived permanently in the UK, my mother and all her family were English or Anglo-Irish, and I was raised on Cicely Mary Barker’s flower fairy books. Since then I’ve fallen in love with the botanical illustrations of H. Isabel Adams, who published books on the wildflowers of Great Britain.
She’s very good. By coincidence I have Dad’s old wildflower book on my bedside table at the moment, with illustrations by Marjorie Blamey.
Also gorgeous!