Silene californica

[Roma]

I was moaning last year about getting wrong seed of Silene californica.  A kind forumist sent me some genuine seed (thanks Gene).  The seed was sown November 2013 and germinated late February this year.  I potted the seedlings in April, a few in single 5cm pots and two pots with 3 smaller seedlings.  One was left in the seed pot.  It was eaten by a slug down to the cotyledons.  It did produce two shoots which did not grow past the 4 leaf stage.  It got infected by red spider and am not sure if it is still alive.  The two survivors are under the bench,each with a single shoot about 50cm long and flower buds now showing.
First flower opened two days ago.   It won't be a show plant but I'm excited to see one flower.

[Gene Mirro]

The plants always seem to be straggly and wild-looking.  I don't know if you could grow them to look like an alpine.  They grow at fairly low altitudes in nature. 

[Robert]

In the wild Silene californica looks wild - never compact or tidy. They grow on shady canyon sides at low to mid elevation here in the Sierra - Nevada. They go bone dry during the summer too.

[Jupiter]

Hmmm. Could be one for me.

[Roma]

We're not getting much sun now so I took the Silene californica plants up from under the bench and draped them over my big Cyclamen mirabile.  The one on the left has bigger, brighter red flowers.  There are more buds to come but it's getting colder at night now so I don't know how many more will open.

[angie]

Really lovely Roma, nice to have something bright at this time of year.

Angie 

[Paul Cumbleton]

When I worked at Wisley we used to grow a lovely compact form of Silene californica (pictured below). This came from Ron Ratko (of the sadly now non-trading Northwest Native Seed) who discovered a population of this compact form and collected seed offered in his list a few years ago. This form comes true from seed and makes a really good pot plant. Does anyone still have this form growing?

Paul

Silene californica compact form

[Gene Mirro]

If you have S. californica, you may want to google "Silene serpentinicola".  It looks a lot like californica, but very rare.  Alplains is selling it this year.  I wouldn't be surprised if there has been some mislabelling of seeds, since they are so similar.