Description
Catchfly
Add vibrant color and old-fashioned charm to your garden with catchfly (Silene armeria). This easy-to-grow annual produces dense clusters of brilliant rose-pink to magenta flowers atop upright stems with attractive gray-green foliage. Blooming just 6 to 8 weeks after germination, catchfly provides a dazzling display from mid-summer into fall while attracting bees, butterflies, and other beneficial pollinators.
Native to southern Europe but naturalized throughout much of North America, catchfly thrives in sunny, well-drained locations and is an excellent choice for wildflower meadows, cottage gardens, pollinator plantings, borders, and naturalized landscapes. When planted in drifts or mass plantings, its vivid blooms create a stunning carpet of color. The flowers also make excellent additions to fresh-cut bouquets.
Despite its common name, catchfly is not a carnivorous plant. The sticky stems simply help deter crawling insects from reaching the flowers. Plants readily self-seed when allowed to drop seed onto bare soil, returning year after year in favorable conditions.
Catchfly grows best in full sun to partial shade with average to dry, well-drained soil. It tolerates sandy, gravelly, and poor soils and is drought-tolerant once established. In USDA Zones 7–10, fall sowings often overwinter and bloom earlier the following season.
Whether you’re creating a colorful pollinator garden, brightening a cottage garden border, or establishing a naturalized meadow, catchfly is one of the easiest wildflowers to grow. Its vibrant blooms, carefree nature, and ability to reseed make it a dependable favorite that returns with a splash of color season after season.
Quick Specs
- Origin: Introduced
- Type: Annual
- Color: Deep pink to magenta
- Height: 16-20 inches
- Width/spread: 6-9 inches
- Sunlight: Full sun, partial shade
- Water: Dry to moderate
- Bloom Season: Summer
- Planting Time: Spring or fall
- Zones: 3b–10a
- Use: Borders, cottage gardens, annual beds, containers
- Attracts: Butterflies, bees
- Packet weight: 1.5 g
- Seeds per packet: Approximately 11,500 seeds
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