echinosum writes

Dawn Fixter;814377 Wrote:
[image:

http://i182.photobucket.com/albums/x...007/misc001.jp
g]

Please can anyone help me to identify this flower? I was given it
about
5 years ago and so I presume it is a perennial. When I went to
Beamish
Museum about a month ago I saw the same flower but it was a lovely
sky
blue colour. I would like to buy a plant or some seeds but I don't
know
the name of it. I would be so grateful if anyone could identify it
for
me.
Sweet William. Comes in reds, pinks and blues. Easily grown from seed
but is biennial so flowers the second year.


Be careful when you purchase your seed! Sweet William usually refers to
Dianthus barbatus, with flat heads of flowers (rather than spikes), and
comes in white, pink and purple, often with elaborate markings on each
flower.

Echinosum I think is referring to Phlox, a completely different flower,
which also seems to be called Sweet William (perhaps more in the US),
although I'd not heard this usage before.

--
Kay