Carnation.

I bought this bunch of carnations for Mrs TD for Valentine's day, they were the only tokens of love on sale with the combined virtues of good taste and reasonable price. It has been said, mostly by her good self, that I am a bit mean - rather like an Aberdonian but without the generosity gene, I maintain that I am merely prudent. HGS would have given me a serious talking to had I presented her with any one of the cards on sale locally and none of the alternative floral tributes would have survived for more than a week and still show no sign of fading into a state of artistic decomposition. That blip will have to wait.

I like to check up on information before I write about it as betting on a certainty against Herself is already costing me a very expensive sewing machine, though I do tell her that she's worth it. Thus it was that I discovered that we can thank a certain Mr Montague Allwood for blooms such as this. Before he died in 1958, he had spent many years crossing pinks and carnations to produce a new race of perpetually-flowering pinks with scented, double flowers. These became known as Dianthus x allwoodii and were often given Christian names.

I don’t know which variety this one is, although I can find photographs of many similar ones, so I’ll call it Enid after one of The Old Lady’s friends at The Lodge.

I've just posted last Sunday's "Fairy House."