Flowers for Gail

This post is for all of you but most especially for Gail. Gail is a fellow blogger who lives in Nashville Tennessee and always finds the time to leave nice comments here.

Gail's blog is Clay and Limestone and one of these days I'm going to get to Nashville and we are going to go for a nice long walk. The name of Gail's blog says it all, she has some pretty tough soil conditions to work with.

Yesterday I had a photo of a watering can that was filled with volunteer seedlings. Gail had inquired about them and I answered that one was Silene armeria (catchfly).

You can see in the top photo that it can handle just about anything, seeding itself into a crack in my south facing brick patio.

Silene armeria was given to me many years ago (at least 20 years) by a co-worker when I actually had a "day job". Carmen gave me a little slip in a 4 inch pot. Who would have thought that I'd have waves and waves of this happy plant all over my garden today.

While Silene armeria combines wonderfully with many plants, this Iris isn't the best combo but I wanted to show you something that would give you a size comparison. It's hard to plan combinations with this plant as it's an annual and you never know exactly where it's going to seed.

There have been times that I've weeded my Silene aremeria to the point that I thought I had lost it. Now I just leave it be as it never seeds into the lawn or becomes a pest.

One thing I often forget is that Silene armeria makes a good cut flower. Yesterday I made up several small arrangements to put in my house since it was just too hot to stay in the garden.

Today I'd like to stop at Michaels Craft store to pick up a few more cheap bud vases so I can have little nosegays in every room. If I manage to get this done I'll try to remember to take photos.

Stay cool, it's going to be another sweltering day here on Long Island. At least I now have a fan blowing on my while I type which makes a world of difference.