It's funny how perception is in the eye of the beholder. Like many, I first saw PIGMENT OF IMAGINATION at the 2012 National meeting in Columbus, OH. The hybridizer, Richard Norris, lives in OH and my guess is he guested it at several of the tour gardens. I first saw it at 4 PM in one garden, and then saw it at 8 AM in another garden. It freaked me and others totally out, and like many, I came home and ordered it directly from Richard. So now, 8 years later, lots of people are on the color changer bandwagon and hybridizing in that direction. Good for them! What I've observed here in my garden is that POI is regrettably, not that great of a garden plant. IMHO, the blooms are , well, ugly early in the day when most people would see them, bud count and scapes are not that impressive. IMHO, the hybridizer might have introduced it because he realized he was on to something distinctive.
I've enjoyed the near white blooms in the evening, but visitors never see that. ( In July here, every single day of the month was 90 degrees and over. ) So I'm in the midst of fall shipping and have sold the entire plant. It was fun to grow it for the novelty but good plant habits win here, hands down.
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