Sweet William: Pollinator Gardening Dianthus barbatus

Unscrupulous vendors are selling all sorts of things in 'wildflower' seed mixes- garden hybrids, non-natives, even invasives. In this case, from seed sown a couple of decades ago, we have a well established population of Dianthus barbatus/ Sweet William. It has not -so far- made its way into completely wild vegetation on the acreage, but is present in large numbers in certain mowed areas. Where I have vegetable beds or other things (compost piles, wood, mulch etc) that limit mowing, they get to flower. Pollinators, especially butterflies and skippers, love the flowers in their wide range of colours.. See my blog post for more photos of the variations, and thoughts on "wildflower" seed mixes: https://cohanmagazine.blogspot.com/2024/07/sweet-william-dianthus-barbatus-weed.html Music: "Summer" composed and recorded by Oak Studios https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UpRPzujTa7w&list=PL8hapc2gtF5FoikFLT1aJwx4ewIOM-TrZ&index=3 Creative Commons - Attribution ND 4.0