Who Tie-Dyed This Flower?

Did someone come in the middle of night and tie-dye this flower?

No, just Mother Nature showing us some tri-colors: combining a brilliant blue, a soft yellow, and a creamy white in two starburst patterns.

We weren't expecting this beauty--a dwarf morning glory, Convolvulus tricolor--when we seeded part of our pollinator garden last April. Seed packets usually tell us what's inside: the common and scientific names, whether it's a perennial, biennial or annual, its plant height, days to harvest or bloom, and habit--whether it climbs, curls, cowers, spreads, bushes out, insists on standing up, etc.  

This seed packet figured it had the right to remain silent. An introverted seed packet? "I'm shy. Guess what I am!"

Fact is, it's native to Mediterranean Basin, it's an annual, it likes full sun, it self-sows, and it's an award-winner: It won a Royal Horticultural Society's Award of Garden Merit

Insects, including bees and flies, seem to like it.

One thing's for certain, Mother Nature really knows how to put on a show.