Today’s flower is from Ireland. It was growing in a small cottage garden with some daisies, sage, tall Goat’s beard, and roses. This flower was the star of this particular garden, although they had window boxes with lovely red Geraniums mixed with blue Lobelia that were also fantastic. This was probably one of the most beautiful flowers I have seen. My camera battery had died 10 minutes before I stumbled on this beauty, and I had to use my backup camera. At the time I was so disappointed, but later realized my backup is a very good camera and I am lucky to have it (it is a Coolpix 8400, by the way). It did a nice job capturing this beauty under tough conditions. It was kind of a misty twilight.

I am not sure what flower this is. That is probably a little of the attraction for me. I have grown a plant similar to this called Striped Mallow. It looks to me like it is in that family but the flower was larger and more refined. I think I have narrowed it down to Lavatera trimestris or Malope trifida. You can see the green calyx through the petals so that would point to Malope. I am going to try and keep researching it; if anyone knows, please share your knowledge. If I find out, I will edit this post and a few new plants will have to go in the garden next year.