None So Pretty

"None So Pretty"

Brilliant pink flowers in small clusters. They grew all over my mother's gardens. I remember them well. I imagine asking her, "Why are they called 'None So Pretty' ?
I am sure she must have said, "Perhaps because there are 'none so pretty' as these little pink flowers, or perhaps because even though they are small, they are a determined little flower that finds every opportunity to grow all over the garden."
Their blooms wouldn't last long and then she would pull them up, but they would come back in yet a new spot, reseeding themselves in every corner of the perennial bed and sometimes even between the rock wall or even between the pool flagstones. There was no worry that they would not grow again. The 'None So Pretty" would survive.
Over the years, I have never had 'None So Pretties' in my yard. I wonder now why I have not and I had almost forgotten about the little flower until my niece's wedding this past March.
Theme weddings seem to be a popular fad for young couples today and my niece's theme was baseball, specifically the Red Sox since both she and her husband are huge fans of the team. The table favors were baseball decorated packages of flower seed packets. When I got home, I put them aside on my kitchen table and never opened them until I began thinking of planting with the arrival of Spring. The name of the flower on the packet inside was "CatchFly". Not being familiar with this flower, I searched it on the internet and this is what I found.

"None-so-Pretty or Catchfly, Silene armeria"

I am not sure if my niece realized the irony of her selection since she would not have remembered that these flowers grew all over her grandmother's gardens. Most likely, she chose the flower because of its other name, "CatchFly" since that fit her wedding theme. But to me it seemed quite fitting that this was the flower that after all these years, I could fianlly plant in my own gardens. None So Pretty.
The flower that I remember in my mother's gardens.