Question
I live in Central Florida, I picked up some Dianthus growing in my yard and planted it in potting soil in a pot. In yard and down the road the flowers are a hot pink color, in the potting soil they are a dark maroon, but, about a foot away from some dark red ones, are some of the same type that are growing white with the red zig-zag in the middle, in this spot i use to burn fires, and last year i added a bunch of old oak leaves, but thats it... Do you know what in the soil could make it grow different colors like that?

Answer
Hi Shelly,
Thanx for your question.  I have two thoughts on this.  One is that you have a hybrid plant going to seed and the resulting plants have reverted back to other generations where there is lots of variation in colors and patterns.  The second thought is that there was natural variation in the genes of the plant to begin with and you're seeing that variation with each new generation of plants.  Dianthus self seeds very prolifically.  I hope this helps.
Tom