Mignonette 'Machet'

We can't be without this small delight, and bees love it too! The small spikes of fringed, pale salmon flowers possess a wonderful sweet fragrance with overtones of raspberry. Napoleon brought this seed back from Egypt for his Josephine. She was entranced and named it 'mignonette' or 'little darling.' E.A. Bowles wrote in 1914, 'I like to place mignonette in a cut glass bowl, it is so cool and fresh in its green and gold and a spangling of silver and a ruby here and there that brightens it at close quarters.' The variety 'Machet' was offered in an 1886 garden catalog, which described it as having "deliciously scented red flowers. Entirely distinct." Sow outdoors in early spring.