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I love the Red Campion with a passion. I am at times a little lax with such things as mowing meadows and weeding borders
and this pretty Campion will shower my neglect with pink forgiveness. I have neither the heart nor the inclination to deny it the space it chooses. The Woodland Trust informs me that: "A noticeable flower, the red campion has been mentioned in various poems including Summer Woods by the poet Mary Howitt. Red campion’s genus name, Silene, probably derives from the Greek word ‘sialon’, which means saliva, in reference to the gummy substance the plant secretes on the stems. Folklore tells that red campion flowers guard bees’ honey stores, as well as protecting fairies from being discovered." I have certainly never discovered fairies in the garden, though I have looked. In a post on Facebook, St Andrews Botanic Garden says: "In folklore, it is said to be a sign of fairies in gardens, and that picking its flowers will provoke the rath of the fairies!" |
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