Davids Garden Diary

Fire & Ice

Posted on July 3, 2015 by davidsgardendiary

I am absolutely smitten by Lychnis of all kinds and grow several types including this, my current favourite, Lychnis chalcedonica, or Maltese Cross (for obvious reasons!) It must be the easiest plant to propagate from seed. One seed head will produce literally hundreds of new plants.

The ice is provided by these little beauties, Lilium regale, which are easy and reliable and have doubled in quantity in their large pot since last year. The scent is just heavenly all day and into the night (as I found out at 3am this morning – no questions please!) and there is no doubting why. Just look at the amount of pollen on those stamens!

Plucky Perennials

Posted on November 5, 2012 by davidsgardendiary

This is Lychnis chalcedonica ‘Dusky Salmon’, a lovely early long flowering perennial with strong upright stems and gorgeous pinky salmon cross shaped flowers hence it’s common name of Maltese Cross or Jerusalem Cross.

It produces masses of seed and I decided to sow some fresh in early October to see if it would germinate. As you can see, it did, all of it!

At the same time I sowed a few Galega officinalis ‘Alba’, another hardy perennial and a member of the vetch family. It too germinated easily straight from the seed pod.