Hairy babe of the garden// old fashioned fav :: Rose Campion

Hairy babe of the garden// old fashioned fav :: Rose Campion ((Silene coronaria))

...aka lamp flower as those woolly leaves were used as lamp wicks.

Often this flower doesn’t photograph well because the colors are so bright!!

These seeds were gifted to us from a wise woman of the land (whom we lived with for a spell) who has tended her own rugged mountainous land in North Carolina for decades. Plant/people connections are so rich as they evoke not only the innate botanical beauty but harken to the relationships we forge via plants throughout time; a particular period (or way) of life and a sweet memory as the person is recalled to mind.

Share Seeds!

She sent us these seeds when we first moved to the land and I sowed them in the gardens. These flowers notoriously self-sow and keep coming back year after year (although they are short lived perennials, they reseed around the original mother plant.) The first year we had them in our garden by the cabin in the woods. Since then we've moved them to numerous other beds and they usually put on this beautiful flower in the first year and don't come back the next.

I think as long as we have a garden, I'd love to keep growing this!

As stated above, it's one of the reasons I love to share seeds because we carry the stories of how we got them and when we look at these lovely plants we think back to that very cool lady who lives on the mountainside in North Carolina. We think of her fortitude, generosity, commitment, etc.

We have written about her previously here and here.

We don't use rose campion for any other purpose than eyeing these beautiful babes in the garden, but you can use the leaves as lamp wicks. I'll have to try that some day!

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Posted from my blog with SteemPress : http://www.ozarkmountainjewel.com/2019/06/02/hairy-babe-of-the-garden-old-fashioned-fav-rose-campion/

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