Lychnis chalcedonica

This little beauty is one of the traditional cottage garden plants, and it carries congested heads of brilliant scarlet Maltese-Cross-like flowers right into late summer.

Sow seeds onto a good soil-based compost, covering the seeds with fine grit or compost to approximately their own depth. We recommend germinating at 15 to 20 degrees C. Although they can be sown at any time, these seeds may sometimes wait for spring before emerging, but spring sowing will obviously give them a full season of growth.