Silene Blushing Lanterns Seeds — Silene vulgaris

A Cottage Garden Gem That Keeps on Giving

Silene Blushing Lanterns (Silene vulgaris) is one of those quietly magical cottage garden plants that stops you in your tracks. Slender branching stems carry clusters of the most distinctive blooms — plump, oval, inflated calyces in soft blush-pink, each one like a tiny paper lantern, with delicate white petals emerging from the tip. It's a plant that rewards a closer look, and once you've grown it, you'll wonder how you ever gardened without it. A prolific self-seeder, it will naturalise happily and return year after year with little encouragement.

Why Gardeners Love It

• 🏮 Unique inflated lantern calyces — plump, oval, blush-pink bladders with delicate white petals emerging from the tip; unlike anything else in the cottage garden
• 🌱 Prolific self-seeder — once established, Silene Blushing Lanterns will naturalise and return reliably year after year
• 🌸 Airy, naturalistic habit — slender branching stems weave beautifully through borders and wildflower plantings
• 🐝 Pollinator friendly — bees and hoverflies love the open, accessible flowers
• 🌿 Versatile grower — beautiful at border edges, in rockeries, spilling from pots, or naturalising in a wildflower area
• ✂️ Lovely in posies — the delicate nodding stems and lantern calyces add a whimsical, airy quality to cottage arrangements

Growing Tips for New Zealand

Sow direct from autumn through to early spring, or start indoors from August. Silene vulgaris thrives in the cooler months and flowers in late winter through spring — a wonderful early-season performer when the garden is just waking up. Scatter seeds on the surface of well-drained soil in a sunny to partly shaded position and water in gently. Thin to 15–20 cm apart. Once established, allow plants to set seed and self-sow freely for a naturalised cottage garden effect. Performs beautifully throughout New Zealand.

What's in the Packet

Each packet contains 10 seeds of Silene Blushing Lanterns (Silene vulgaris). A prolific self-seeder — sow once and enjoy for years to come.