I have the Tall Double Mixed Colors variety that I picked up off a rack of cheap seeds. They almost all grew. Starting this early, I'm thinking I could set some out while it is still cold in March or April and trick them into thinking they went through a winter. I have enough that I can experiment. I'm not sure if they need time or a vernilization period to go into flowering mode. Could be a fun experiment. "You may run out of summer"...I like the way you put that, Al. Some years we sure do run out of summer quickly. Right now we have about 2 feet of snow in our yard and more is falling. Very pretty but very cold.

I love silene. It's a self-seeding annual in zone 5. If you leave them to seed, you will have babies all over the place next year. They will sprout in early spring, sometimes in autumn to winter over. They're easy to weed out where you don't want them, but I let them pop up between plants. I also save some seed each summer just in case they don't return. But they always have. The color is gorgeous.

They are biennials or short lived perennials from reading various sources. All I know is that mine were gorgeous last year and just a gorgeous this year....loaded with blooms! In fact I have one that came back twice as big as last year...just really like this spot I guess. Yes, I cut the whole thing back into the foliage, get another round of blooms and then cut'em back again. Bloom started about May 20th...the picture is from June 10th and was 2.5' tall by 2' wide as of a few days ago....blooms weren't even really fading when I cut them back yesterday either but it sure was full of them! You could hardly see foliage from the top view :D After cut back.... BTW here is how it looked over the winter after first year bloom...pic was taken April 13th but not much change...

Trudi is right, although I've seen some so called biennials last for quite a few years. What started me on Sweet Williams was one such plant which was on it's 5th year. This was at a nursery where the gardens were tended by one of the kindest gardeners I've ever met. He looked as though he was in his eighties and noticed my curiosity about a particular flowering plant. He told me he loved the colour - a beautiful velvet wine red laced with a tinge of white - and had never let it seed in five years as he had been unable to grow another like it. The footing had grown to 1 foot in diameter and the plant was a knock-out!! I've decided to try what he did and this year I separated all the seedlings - no hunks - for about 15 plants. We have SWs in my daughter's garden which have been there for 4 years. They have to be the same plants as we've never let them seed. Now I just want to separate one colour from another.