It's called Catchfly or None-So-Pretty. This magenta flower is all over my garden and I have been wondering what is was. I found out not too long ago when KFOL had it's annual Garden Walkabout.

I was incharge of a garden which was touted as a planted-from-seeds garden. What a pleasant surprise! Along a dirt road, you would notice the gardens right next to a nicely made stone column and rail fence. This was impressive, but not so glorious as the 20x40 or so garden hidden behind the house. This was a mass of color: blue Bachelor's Buttons, orange California poppies, fragile red and white poppies, bright red orange poppies, hollyhocks, white daises, golden Sweet Marguerite, pink, red, burgundy and pink/white Sweet Williams, and vibrant passionate pink Catchfly. This scene was like stepping into a Monet painting. Colleen (the owner) just dead-heads the flowers and puts them where she wants new plants. I asked if she covered them with soil, and she said, "No, nature doesn't do it that way."

So, as the garden was being toured and I was the tour guide pointing out the features and answering questions, a master gardener told her friends that the plant with the five petal star flower was Catchfly. My favorite reference, The Flower Family Album, Fisher and Harshbarger (1941), puts this plant in the Pink family with some species carrying a sticky gum high on their stems to keep away unwlecome insects.

I have been dead-heading them and placing them around my garden thanks to Colleen's advice. They are very colorful and an easy, cheap addition. Another great reference for wildflowers is http://www.wildflowerinformation.org/default.asp.