Success WSing Silene or Lychnis (Catchfly varieties) ??

I'm fortunate enough to have seeds from several different varieties of Lychnis and Silene (Catchfly) and was wondering if anybody had had success wintersowing them?

I've WS'd Lychnis coronaria, aka Silene coronaria, aka Rose Campion very successfully, but these others are listed in PF as "sow indoors before last frost" and "direct sow after last frost," and I haven't found specific information about wintersowing them.

I plan to hold back a few seeds of each for indoor starting as a backup, but I wanted to ask for input before putting most of the seeds out in the cold. :-)

Here's what I have:
Lychnis alpina, Alpine Catchfly
Lychnis alpina v. serpentinicola, European Alpine Catchfly
Lychnis yunnanensis, Yunan Catchfly
Lychnis viscaria, German Catchfly
Silene stenophylla

Thanks!

I think anything with alpina in the title can be winter sown since it means alpine - growing or living above timberline. So they should be fine

Somebody grew the L. yunnanensis in zone 6 in the wintersown . org database...sowed Feb., germ. March. Most of Yunnan is high elevation, too.

Good! That concurs with what I've been thinking... seems like any of the rock garden plants native to cold climates should WS well.

Thanks! I'll keep you posted if I have any luck with them...

You might add extra drainage holes to the containers and some garden sand to the potting mix of those those alpine containers because 'alpine' also refers to needing an extremely well draining site.

Suzy

I sowed "catchfly ruby flax" last year. Sorry, I never knew the botanical name. I think I bought it from valueseeds. It germinated and was pretty.

Karen

Suzy, that's a good point about the drainage holes... I already sowed them, but I did add some extra perlite (maybe 10%) and some polymer moisture crystals (which soak up excess water), so that should help... I was pretty generous with the drainage, but if it looks like the container is the least bit soggy I will poke in some extra holes.

Karen, thanks... good to know that somebody had success germinating any kind of catchfly this way!

I wintersowed lychnis viscaria successfully last year. It didn't bloom the first year, but was quite healthy.

Woohooo -- that's one I've got out there in the snow now! Thanks for the good report!

I WS's Silene several yrs ago and now it reseeds itself here in zone 7.

Ruth

Thanks for letting me know, Ruth! I hadn't even thought ahead to having these guys self-sow down the road.... now my imagination is running wild! LOL

My two rows of silene have sprouted! They're teeny -- but they're green! -- first thing up in my WS containers. Today I noticed that I had some Linaria up also... :-)

wooo hoooo Jill...that is so exciting! I have some up and going too, not sure what they are, the writing came off the containers on some..LOL I wrote them with permanent marker, with the idea that I would put the tape on the bottom, and I put them outside when done and NEVER thought about it again...LOL I just get too side tracked sometimes...but they were seed I got from a trade, so I know what was in the trade, so perhaps I can identify them once they are growing...LOL I have so many weeds growing, at least I THINK they are weeds....isn't it funny how every year we want to believe the weeds are seeds we have sown...lol

I'm having pretty good luck with the Industrial Sharpie markers... I also write a number on the side or the bottom of the container, where it won't bleach out in the sun, just in case.

I know my silene sprouts aren't weeds, because they're in such a nice little row! :-)