The Wild Pink Or Catchfly wild flower, also known as Silene Caroliniana or S. Pennsylvanica of Gray blooms with pretty rose pink flowers which can be either deep or pale in color. The flowers are only about an inch wide and tend to appear in clusters. This plant grows between four and ten inches high and the stems are hairy and sticky.

The Catchfly likes dry, gravelly, sandy, or rocky soil and it blooms from April to June. It can grow in southern states such as Georgia, or mid-western states such as Kentucky. These wild flowers are fresh, dainty and innocent looking, and their preference for rocky or sandy soil should make them a great addition to rock gardens. Since they are so small, they'd particularly look well at the rock garden's edge.

In waste places and woods farther southward and westward, and throughout the range of the Wild Pink as well, clusters of the SLEEPY CATCHFLY (S. antirrhina) open their tiny pink flowers for a short time only in the sunshine. At any stage they are mostly calyx, but in fruit this part is much expanded. Swollen, sticky joints are the plant's means of defense from crawlers. Season: Summer.

When moths begin their rounds at dusk, the NIGHT-FLOWERING CATCHFLY (S. noctiflora) opens its pinkish or white flowers to emit a fragrance that guides them to a feast prepared for them alone. Day-blooming catchflies have no perfume, nor do they need it; their color and markings are a sufficient guide to the butterflies. Only a very few flowers, an inch across or less, are clustered at the top of the plant, which blooms from July to September in waste places east of the Mississippi and in Canada.

In the same family is a wild flower known by the names of Soapwort; Bouncing Bet; Hedge Pink; Bruisewort; Old Maid's Pink; or Fuller's Herb. Thankfully it has just one scientific name to identify it with: Saponaria officinalis. The flowers on this plant are ping or whitish, fragrant, and about one inch wide. They're loosely clustered at end of the stem, and the flowers frequently double. The plant itself stands up to two feet tall, has sparse branches but many leaves. The leaves are oval in shape and about one inch wide, with three to five ribs.

This wild flower produces a seed pod capsule which opens slightly at the top. It likes to live on roadsides and banks, and it blooms from June to September. The fragrance from its flowers is strongest at dusk.

This plant sends out underground runners and plenty of seeds to propogate itself well. It is thought to grow just about anywhere and was originally brought from Europe. It also makes a soap like lather when its crushed leaves are swirled around in water.