This genus contains some small alpines (including one that is very rare in Britain), as well as larger plants suitable for a herbaceous border. The white, pink orr ed flowers are carried in terminal clusters.

Lychnis (Silene) flos-cuculi 'Nana' is a compact form of the ragged robin, which is a characteristic plant of wet meadows in much of Europe, including Britain. It appears to have about twenty pink petals, but in fact there are five, each split deeply into four long, narrow lobes, over a rosette of greyish-green foliage.