Wildflower ID
KeenOnGreen
Posts: 1,819
in Plants
Just spotted this beauty in my local meadow. Is it Red Campion?
Last edited: 25 May 2016 14:08:39
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KeenOnGreen
Posts: 1,819
KeenOnGreen
Posts: 1,819
KeenOnGreen
Posts: 1,819
Posts
Yes. Silene dioica
Thanks. Will keep my eye on when its in seed.
That's a good one! You might not get all the same though. I have lots and there is quite a diversity of flower colour and petal shape, from quite pale pink to almost shocking pink and from almost circular flowers, like that one, to ones with deeply incised petals that look quite starry, different sizes too. I even had one with 2 different coloured flowers on the same plant. Grown in a border, with more food and less competition than wild ones, they make stout plants and go on flowering until November. I even found a flower for my Christmas Day list! All mine came from a single pinch of seed, but they are very generous with it. Look great with hardy geraniums.
I read they like shady and moist conditions. Don't have much of that but it won't put me off.
I have them growing in dry shade. There are a lot on the M1 embankment, and there is some variation, some having a reddish calyx, giving the overall plant a much redder appearance.
It prefers welldrained soil rather than wet conditions.
Ragged robin (Lychnis flos cuculi) is superficially similar and likes wet conditions.
Last edited: 25 May 2016 18:03:32
Dry shade for mine too. They spread well, too well for some.
It's the white campion, Silene latifolia, that I can't keep, though it turns up again from time to time. I have Silene fimbriata instead for a white one to go with the red. Hoping for hybrids.
In the sticks near Peterborough
I've got a nice pink one with variegated leaves.I did buy the one named Jenny but it died after the first year.
Ditto nut - I sowed equal amounts of red and white last year but vastly more red have reached maturity. Campions are lovely though
The red and white cross pollinate I think hollie to produce pink offspring