A mystery plant appeared in my garage flowerbed this year, my gardening friend told me it is Silene..and I have looked on the internet, gardening websites and in catalogues and think it is Lychnis Viscaria "Feuer"..Diane's seeds site has a picture of what mine looked like. It was beautiful..it is finished blooming. I'm wondering if I should cut it back and see if it will rebloom this summer at a later time. Whatever it is, I have no record of planting it. I had one plant of silene about 2 yrs. ago but in a different bed and that plant didn't even get but about 9-12' tall and there was only one stem to it, so I pulled it up and put in yard waste bag. This plant was absolutely stunning and stands about 26 in. tall. I can't find any pictures of this plant's foliage so I can definately ID it. I would love to see if I can collect seeds from it. Do you think if I put a dried bloom in a paper bag and shook the bag, maybe the seeds would fall out?
Name: Susan Virginia (Zone 8a) God is the only thing that matters.
Pippy, I am not familiar with collecting seeds from this plant. Others might come along later. How about the seed forum? They would probably know. http://garden.org/forums/view/...
Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin: And yet I say unto you, That even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. Mat.6:28-29
Found more pictures from other garden websites that have convinced me that my friend was right that her identification of my mystery plant is Silene Armeria.. It will be one of the plants in my beds that gets moved toward the back of the bed come Fall. I'm going to cut it back today to see if it will rebloom another time this summer. If anybody out there has this same plant, please share with me. I haven't found a website that tell you what to do with this plant after it blooms, how to collect seeds from it.
I cut back the plant and yep, it's stems are sticky..I understand this plant reseeds a lot so I will be anxious to look for those signs of little seedlings starting. Hope I'll be able to recognize them. I definately will be moving it in the Fall toward the back of the border because of it's height.
Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin: And yet I say unto you, That even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. Mat.6:28-29
Mine is in bloom now , and Yes they do reseed freely , but always a nice surprise.
You can catch the seed , just as the pods start to dry , pick and bag.
Name: Susan Virginia (Zone 8a) God is the only thing that matters.
Thank you Cinda, it is beautiful.
Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin: And yet I say unto you, That even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. Mat.6:28-29
I cut the dried blooms off but didn't keep them..and cut the stems down about 6-9 inches. I've heard from others that this is a plant that reseeds a lot so I'll be on the look out for plants next Spring. I do need to move it back further in the middle of the garden instead of front and center. Cinda, do you recommend I cut it down lower, like to basal crown? Will it rebloom this summer?
I have not had them rebloom , but it sounds like you have a longer season there so maybe. The first of mine have just started to bloom here.
They act more like a reseeding annual here for me, I don't notice the same plant in the same place year after year , but I have very messy gardens so I may just not be paying attention.
Cinda, my silene plant was about 24-26 in. tall. I see yours is in a flower pot. I hope that I'll be able to identify the new seedlings early next spring..I will be moving this plant back farther back in the flowerbed. Don't know why it was at front of bed. guess it was one of the wintersown plants that I just plunked where ever I could find a bare spot. got a big carried away wintersowing too much and then overwhelmed when it came time to plant them out. I'm sure that was probably the case with Silene Armeria, even though I don't show any records of having grown the seed myself.
Seedlings are not hard to recognize they are bluish and have a succulent look about them.
They come up in my pots a lot more frequently than in the garden , but I think that may just be the availability of good ground to sprout in.
Thanks for that tip about the seedlings. My rose campion started blooming today but Sunday when we got back from the plant swap, I notice the magenta blooms were peeking out and ready to bloom. Yesterday, we had a light, soaking rain most of the day and they are predicting more,. I think it is either Patty's plum poppy or Lauren's grape poppy that started blooming on Sunday. I've got to look at my wintersowing records to see which one it is..My red/orange orientals have been stunning this Spring. I had wintersowed them back in 2009 or 2010.
Do you think I could dig the entire Silene plant up and divide and transplant it now or wait till Fall? I've got plenty to keep me busy so don't need to go looking for more work! LOL!
I'm so glad I stumbled upon this thread.....a mystery plant appeared in my mom's garden just this week and I had no idea what it was. It looks exactly like the plant in Cinda's photo. I'm so happy to know what it is.
http://garden.org/forums/view/...
