Lychnis

Lychnis seduces with its silvery-grey foliage with a velvety appearance and its flowering with a very wild character. Massif, border, meadow, these pretty perennials with sometimes very short lifespan can be found everywhere, especially in natural gardens.

Their delicate flowering, carried by generally downy stems, offers beautiful shades of pink: from bright magenta pink to very tender pale pink, sometimes even pure white.

The garden Lychnis (Lychnis coronaria) grows and develops spontaneously in poor and dry soils and perfectly resists limestone, making it the queen of dry gardens. Its summer flowering works wonders in massif, border, or rock garden, but it also easily settles in all the most ungrateful corners of the garden.

While the species Lychnis flos-jovis also tolerates drought very well, other Lychnis species show a clear preference for moist soils, such as Lychnis viscaria with its adorable layered and frilly flowers, or even wet soils for Lychnis chalcedonica and Lychnis flos-cuculi. The latter makes a wonderful waterside plant.

Beyond their different preference for soil moisture, Lychnis plants are all easy to grow and highly hardy (at least -15°C (5°F)), allowing all gardeners to adopt them, regardless of their climate. Once established, they generously self-seed, sometimes even in the short grass meadow, and require no maintenance.