Catchfly

Catchfly (Silene) - A large family containing few showy plants, but with some of great beauty. S. and C. Europe is the home of the Silene, though a few extend west to America, or east to Siberia, and a sprinkling is found on the southern shores of the Mediterranean and in Asia Minor. The following dwarf kinds are suitable chiefly for the rock garden:—

Contents 1 Related Flowers 1.1 Cushion Pink 1.2 Alpine Catchfly 1.3 Silene Armeria 1.4 Silene Elizabethae 1.5 Silene Hookeri 1.6 Silene Maritima 1.7 Silene Pendula 1.8 Silene Pennsylvanica 1.9 Silene Pumilio 1.10 Silene Laciniata Purpusi 1.11 Silene Schafta 1.12 Fire Pink

Related Flowers

Cushion Pink

Cushion Pink (Silene Acaulis) - A dwarf alpine herb tufted into light green masses like a wide-spreading Moss, but quite firm. In summer it becomes a mass of pink, rose, or crimson flowers barely peeping above the leaves. Spots on the mountains of Scotland, Northern Ireland, North Wales, and the Lake District of England are sheeted over with its firm flat tufts, often several feet across. In gardens it is as beautiful as when wild, growing freely in almost any soil, but not shaded, or in pots and pans. A new species of Silene, S. Palestinae, from Asia Minor, comes near our Cushion Pink, with heads of deep rosy flowers.

Alpine Catchfly

Alpine Catchfly (Silene Alpestris) - A very dwarf alpine plant, hardy, and beautiful when covered with white flowers in May. It succeeds in any soil, and is 4 to 6 inches high. It should be used freely in every rock garden. S. a. grandiflora is an invaluable double-flowered variety. Division or seed.

Silene Armeria

Silene Armeria - a showy annual kind with leafy stems of 12 to 18 inches high, bluish-green foliage, and dense clustered heads of white, pink, or crimson flowers from July to September. When established on old walls and in rough places it will sow itself freely with fine effect, some of the prettiest wild pictures of S. Europe having arisen in this way. It is already naturalised in parts of Britain, and is just the plant for a wild garden, in light and well drained soils.

Silene Elizabethae

Silene Elizabethae - A richly beautiful and scarce alpine plant, the flowers looking more like those of some handsome but tiny Clarkia than of the Silenes commonly grown. They are very large, bright rose with the claws or bases of the petals white. One to seven flowers are borne on stems 3 to 4 inches high. It is considered difficult to grow, but strong plants are as easy to manage as the Cushion Pink. It is rare in a wild state, but occurs in the Tyrol and Italy, amid shattered fragments of rock, and sometimes in flaky rocks without soil. This beautiful "Catchfly" is not often seen even among the choicer alpines, while colonies of it in the rock garden are, rare. The moraine should not prove uncongenial to the plant itself, seeing that in nature it is not infrequent among limestone rubble on sunny slopes. Few species of the genus are more distinct and attractive, the plant bearing handsome Clarkia-like flowers, on stems 6 to 8 inches high, and of a rich, rosy-red color. It flowers late in June and through July. Seeds.—E.H.J.

Silene Hookeri

Silene Hookeri - A dwarf and rare Californian, with downy leaves of two different shaped, trailing stems, and large deeply-notched rose-colored flowers 2 inches across. The plant thrives in deep sandy soil and in open and well-drained positions in the alpine garden, nestled among the larger rocks which reflect the sun and protect from cold winds. Seeds.

Silene Maritima

Silene Maritima - The handsome double variety (S. maritima fl.-pl.) of this British plant is noteworthy, not only for its white flowers like those of a small double Pink, but for its dense spreading sea-green carpet of leaves, pleasing on the margins of raised borders, or hanging over the faces of stones in the rougher parts of the rock garden. The flowers appear in June, and those of the double variety rarely rise more than a couple of inches above the leaves, which form a tuft about 2 inches deep.

Silene Pendula

Silene Pendula - There are many garden forms of this fine biennial. There are double-flowered forms of all these variations, which last longer in flower than the single kinds, and also many named selections, such as Triumph, Snow King, Elfride, Venus, and Empress of India. These compacta varieties are mostly used for spring work, and form compact rounded tufts about 4 inches high. To obtain the finest plants for spring-flowering, seed should be sown in the reserve garden in autumn, and afterwards transplanted. Flowers from May to August. Italy and Sicily.

Silene Pennsylvanica

Silene Pennsylvanica - The wild Pink of America is a dwarf plant, forming dense patches, with clusters of six or eight purplish-rose flowers, about 1 inch across, and standing 4 to 7 inches high from April to June. It thrives in light sandy soil, and is not fastidious, coming from sandy, gravelly places. It will often flower the first year from seed, but mostly not till the second season.

Silene Pumilio

Silene Pumilio - Like our Cushion Pink in its dwarf, firm tufts of shining green leaves, though these are a little more fleshy and not so spiny. The rose-colored flowers are also much larger, handsomer, and taller, though scarcely more than 1 inch above the flat mass of leaves, so that the whole plant is seldom more than 3 inches high. It thrives in rock gardens as well as the Cushion Pink, and should be planted in deep sandy loam on a well-drained and exposed spot, moist in summer, facing the south. Place a few stones round the neck of the young plant to keep it firm and to hold moisture. Tyrol.

Silene Laciniata Purpusi

Silene Laciniata Purpusi - No member of the race can vie with this in brilliant coloring; 6 to 8 inches high, with nearly lance-shaped and woolly leaves, the dazzling cardinal scarlet flowers, 1 1/2 inches across, surpass all else by reason of their intensity. It is valuable, too, for its late summer and autumn flowering. Grows well in rich sandy loam, and prefers a high, dry, and sunny position.

Silene Schafta

Silene Schafta - A spreading hardy plant from the Caucasus forming very neat tufts, 4 to 6 inches high, covered with large purplish-rose flowers. As it flowers late in summer, it should not be used where early bloom is sought, but is useful for edgings. Seed or division.

Fire Pink

Fire Pink (Silene Virginica) - A brilliant perennial, with flowers bright scarlet, 2 inches across. The somewhat slender stalks lie flat on the soil, and the flowers are borne a few inches above it. The Fire Pink succeeds in a well-drained rock garden. It comes from open woods in America, from New York southwards, flowering from June to August. The best plants are obtained from seed, as it does not bear division well. S. rupestris, a sparkling-looking white species, little more than 3 inches high when in bloom, is rather like a dwarf S. alpestris, but better worthy of a place. It is, however, a little particular as to soil, thriving best in rocky debris, and refusing to grow where there is much lime. S. stellata is a graceful plant from American woods, with starry white flowers deeply fringed at the edges, on stems of 18 inches high. S. Zawadski, a neat Austrian species with white flowers in spring.