[sclarke624]

In a bunch of Mother day flowers, my girlie got me, were some mauve flowers which I have seen quite a lot as mixers with bunches of flowers.  They were white chrysanthiums from sainsburys.  I know its a long shot unless I put a pic up but any ideas what they are.  Name some names and I will look up pics on google.

[sclarke624]

Don't worry I found it.

The flower is called statice or sea lavender or Limonium sinuatum
http://www.juliesflowers.org/images/flowers/PurpleStatice.jpg

[Stripey_cat]

If you want to grow your own, it comes in a very wide range of colours (pale cream, yellow, pink, magenta, peach, purple, blues, and bicolours with white).  You need to start it now, in a propagator, then plant it out after the frosts.  It's not the prettiest plant while it's growing (the leaves are like a coarse dandelion, and the flower spike is huge compared to the rosette of leaves), so you probably want to grow it on the allotment or somewhere out of sight, although it does need full sun.  For cutting (or for drying - it keeps its colour very well), pick the spray of flowers on a long stem just as the flowers are opening, as it can fall apart if you pick it once it's fully opened.

[sclarke624]

Thanks stripey.