22 Jun '06 4:48 am Hi,
I got this plant from a friend who lost his wife to cancer a year ago. He had no idea what the plant is and I haven't been able to figure it out. I thought I'd be able to after it bloomed, but nope...still don't know.
The stem and leaves are purple and the flowers are orange. It's about 14 - 16 inches tall.
Picture attached.
anyone know?
22 Jun '06 8:49 am The plant seems to belong to the Lychnis family, dear friend , where you can have Lychnis Chalcedonica (Jerusalem Cross), and Lychnis Coronaria (Rose Campion) ; the first having brilliant red blooms (like yours), the second brilliant wine red. You can go to Google/images and search , by writing the word " Lychnis".
Jack Holloway
Passionate Gardener
SEQUOIA FARM Haenertsburg South Africa
Interesting!
22 Jun '06 8:35 pm What a lovely plant! I don't know of red-leaved lychnis though. My gut suggests lysimachia: I found the picture below on google - could it be related to "Lysimachia ciliata Firecracker" which, however, has yellow flowers?
Jack Holloway
Passionate Gardener
SEQUOIA FARM Haenertsburg South Africa
Really fascinated!
22 Jun '06 11:27 pm Your flower has really got me thinking... Can we please see more pics! Is the flower perhaps so bright because it is luminescent like an ice-plant or cactus-flower? Is the colour of the pic accurate? Perhaps you have something really unusual there - come on everybody, let's crack this one!
Jack Holloway
Passionate Gardener
SEQUOIA FARM Haenertsburg South Africa
Is this it?
23 Jun '06 12:59 am Liza, it seems, was right after all! (Well done, Lisa )
24 Jun '06 5:40 am Sorry it took me so long to respond to all of you. I was having trouble figuring out how to do so.
Thank you so much for your help! Yes that is exactly it. Does anyone know of an easy, common name to remember tho? I guess "Vesuvius" isn't too hard to remember.
I'm happy to see that it will spread nicely for me. I think it's so striking.
Thanks again.
Liza
gardening consultant
Waterloo, Belgium
Vesuvius!
24 Jun '06 8:21 am Dear friend, since Vesuvius is a famous Italian volcano, your lovely plant is...explosively, brilliantly red! So, just call it ..."explossive Love", or " Volcano", or --- more feminine -- " Lady Scarlet". Well??
Just have a look, how our Lychnis look alike ! Having exactly the same form of flowers and the ...explossive , brilliantly red colour!
)
