Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. Any of several plants of the genus Iberis in the mustard family, native to Europe and the Mediterranean region and widely cultivated for their showy clusters of white, pink, crimson, or purple flowers.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. The popular name of plants of the genus Iberis, especially I. umbellata, having tufted flowers, brought from the island of Candia. See Iberis.
Wiktionary
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. (Bot.) An annual plant of the genus Iberis, cultivated in gardens. The name was originally given to the Iberis umbellata, first, discovered in the island of Candia (The Italian name for Crete). It is grown as an ornamental plant, having tufted red,violet, purple, or pink flowers.
WordNet 3.0
- n. any of various flowering plants of the genus Iberis cultivated for their showy clusters of white to red or purple flowers; native to Mediterranean region
Etymologies
- From Candia, the island on which it was discovered, now called [[Heraklion], + tuft (Wiktionary)
- Obsolete Candy (variant of Candia 1) + tuft. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“I would agree that oriental poppies might be too aggressive for these delicate beauties, but candytuft is pretty aggressive too.”
“I particularly like the bed with the Tulipa vvedenskyi ‘Tangerine Beauty’, candytuft and white daffodils.”
“I also love the candytuft/species tulips combo, and those lovely huge groupings of pansies which I love! make a great impact.”
“I especially like the orange tulips with the white candytuft nearby.”
“Love the tulips, candytuft, ajuga, dianthus, lilacs. . . love it all!”
“The patches of candytuft, iberis, in front and back seem to have a more dense flowering than is usual also.”
“The pink tulips have opened along with the white candytuft and the blue grape hyacinths are still hanging on.”
“I swear they went much faster this spring. the lilac in the backyard is coming into bloom — basically, we saved that plant; 2 years ago, it was completely smothered in blackberry and morning glory — and the candytuft & veronica ? continue to bloom, but everything else is still just getting ready to do something.”
the tulips are nearly gone - emergency weblog; or: epersonae; or: elaine nelson
“Mela could not resist plucking a silvery platina lace shawl from a nearby Spanish shawl bush, and Okra nibbled bits and pieces from the pink peppermint candytuft tree.”
“There were bright China-asters, sweet-scented stocks, French marigolds, rose bushes laden with blossoms, little clusters of candytuft, Virginia-stock, mignonette, and many other flowers, contrasting well in colour, and grouped in such good taste.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘candytuft’.
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Flora
Flowers and plants have some of the most beautiful names.
These are often the common names, as opposed to the scientific or botanical names.daffodil, gardenia, tulip, snapdragon, violet, orchid, bleeding heart, daisy, lily, lilac, narcissus, rose and 278 more...
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Mustard
n. A plant of the genus Brassica, formerly classed as Sinapis. The ordinary species are B. nigra, the black mustard; B. alba, the white mustard; and B. Sinapistrum, the wild mustard or charlock. Th...
mustard, Mustard, mustard greens, Brassica, Sinapis, black mustard, white mustard, mustard seed, Jieziyuan Huazhuan, Manual of the Mus..., mustard gas, mustard plaster and 77 more...
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Flora
fenugreek, verbena, saxifrage, arbutus, calendula, nasturtium, lobelia, hellebore, rhododendron, philodendron, bellflower, heuchera and 449 more...
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Words Covered in Faery Dust (C)
words that evoke magic, mystery, mayhem, magnificence or anything else that glimmers in the grass
cacophony, cad, cajole, calamity, camomile, camphor, candlemas, candy apple, canopy, canticle, caparison, caravan and 304 more...
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Mollusque's miscellany
A mixture of words that I like or have commented on, along with ones parked here so they'd be listed somewhere or remind me of lists I want to make.
oranger, monographer, preoccupied, bu, bobization, coinventor, tetrapyloctomy, borgmannian, suspercollate, manhug, mancrush, obituarist and 604 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for candytuft.
mollusque He told me about the chamomiles, the hellebores, the petunias, the sweet williams, the wild pinks, the anemones, the sedums, the candytufts, the peonies, the Syrian opals, the daturas, the flowers that live for only a season, the ones that come back year after year, and the ones that beam from dawn to dusk, displaying their delicate corollas of rosy or mauve convolvulus, only to close abruptly at nightfall, as if a wrathful hand had squeezed their velvet petals and choked them.
--Philippe Claudel, 2007, By a Slow River, p. 111 Aug 6, 2010