Agrostemma coeli-rosa seeds - Rose of heaven

Agrostemma coeli-rosa, nicknamed the Rose of Heaven, and recently renamed Eudianthe coeli-rosa, is a Mediterranean annual with flowers of variable pink with a white centre. This light, spring to summer flowering is very charming. This wild plant thrives and self-seeds easily in well-drained soils. It is a very pretty flower for dry gardens, rockeries, or rustic borders. In a container, its graceful silhouette works wonders on a sunny terrace.

Eudianthe coeli-rosa, formerly known as Agrostemma coeli-rosa, belongs to the Caryophyllaceae family. Among its botanical synonyms are Silene coeli-rosa, Lychnis coeli-rosa, Pontinia coeli-rosa, and Viscaria coeli-rosa. This species is commonly called 'Rose of Heaven'. Its natural range extends from southwestern Europe to northwestern Africa, including Portugal, Spain, France (notably Corsica), Italy (Sardinia and Sicily), Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya, and the Canary Islands. It primarily colonises dry, sunny habitats such as rocky slopes, wastelands, and Mediterranean scrub vegetation.

This herbaceous annual plant has an upright to slightly spreading habit, reaching 30 to 70 cm in height in open ground, but 20 to 40 cm in a pot. Its growth is rapid, completing its life cycle in a single season. Its thin and smooth stems are light green to greyish in colour. The linear to lanceolate leaves, arranged in an opposite manner, measure from 2 to 6 cm long, and have a pale green to grey-green hue. The plant dies at the end of the season.
The flowers are solitary or grouped in loose inflorescences and measure up to 4 cm in diameter. Each flower is composed of five petals coloured from pale pink to bright pink, sometimes red or violet-blue, with a white centre. Flowering extends from May to August depending on the climate and sowing date. Pollination is mainly carried out by insects. The fruits are oblong capsules, 7 to 17 mm long, containing numerous small black seeds.

"Rose of Heaven" has been cultivated as an ornamental plant since at least 1687, for its light flowering and ease of cultivation. Simple, pretty, and graceful, swaying in the slightest breeze, it brings the charm of the countryside to our gardens. Sow it in a wild flower bed, where it will get along wonderfully with Love-in-a-mist, scabious and ornamental grasses like Stipa tenuifolia or Pennisetum x advena 'Rubrum'. Also excellent in rockeries for beautiful summer decoration, its flowers can also be cut for cut flower arrangements, with Madonna lilies and Arum lilies. It is a very easy flower to grow, even in a pot.