Pink cyclamens

I bought a new 'yikes' pink watercolour - W&N Opera Rose (which you can see in its pure form in the top leftish petal) - and the only thing I saw bright enough to paint with it were these cyclamens that I have in a pot by our front door. And even then I had to tone it down with Winsor Red and Rose Madder genuine, besides that small area of shockingness. This paper (Daler-Rowney's 'The Langton' NOT surface) annoyed me by sucking up all the intensity of the colours that I thought I'd put down, and not giving me the crisp hard edges that I so love about watercolour, especially for the diving winged petals of these flowers, that I wanted. So I will do them again on something else - I must remember to take note of materials that do or do not work for my preferred style - this w/c pad is almost finished and I have no recollection that it was so absorbent!