I know of this as a carnation and also it is called 'clove pink', after it's musky clove-like smell, I presume. It is a species of dianthus, which clears that conundrum up for me as I knew they were similar...
...dianthus has a very lovely meaning: 'heavenly flower', after the Greek divine 'dios' and flower 'anthos'.
There are a couple of stories about how carnations arrived on this earthly plane - one pretty gruesome - the spurned goddess Diana ripping the eyeballs out of poor lad who turned her down and carnations popping up where the eyeballs fell on the earth!
The other telling of Mary weeping after Jesus and carnations springing up where her tears landed.
Carnations have a long and enduring history, touching many people and cultures for many reasons - celebrations and defiance, mostly and mens' buttonholes!
In our garden, I appreciate their persistence through the frost and snow, even - carnations regenerate the next Spring quite happily with not too much effort at all - so far!
I'd not seen a variagated carnation before and was rather delighted when this one came out the other day.
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