My wife and I enjoy an unending argument every time we see a flower this color. This Morning Glory is an heirloom variety called ‘Grandpa Otts’.

My brain immediately puts it into the “blue” category but she discerns the many other hues, and calls it “purple”. And my memory pulls me toward the sky-blue of the old-fashioned Morning Glory and that prejudices my opinion.

Sure, if you take pure blue and add white or black, it changes the shade, but it is still blue. But the moment you add even a speck of red, we have issues. So, to settle our disagreement I spent a bit of money to access the Highest Authority on color: Pantone.

Pantone are the color people who have categorized, organized, and named nearly every color of the rainbow. People rely on this company when designing clothing, cars, houses, even medicines. Each year they come up with the “Color of the Year” that strongly influences commerce. ( 2024 winner is Peach Fuzz, that suggests cozy moments and kindness, they say.)

Anyway, Pantone has a web-based tool called Pantone Connect where you download a photo, then point to an area and it analyzes that spot and gives you the name of that color! All right color experts, let me show you a blueish flower and help me educate my wife. Here we go…watch where the little white circle lands to see the correct hue. Click on each screenshot for details.

Um, I had to really dig toward the outer edge of this bloom before it called it “Deep Blue”. The darkest part of the star is “Ocean Cavern”. But, all the rest of it is purple. The very center is pinkish-white and they call it “Festival Bloom”. All right, I just got schooled. ‘Grandpa Ott’s’ is purple.

And, further along the same vine are these four:

On the left is predominantly “Royal Purple” and the right pair are “Dahlia”.

As I searched the folds of the petals, the software identified “Violet Indigo, Parachute Purple, Amaranth Purple”, and even the veins are considered “Potent Purple”.

Fine, disagreement settled. Now let’s move on to the 4000 shades of off-white.