yep, seconded.

Is it advisable to plant large quantity of these, like 200 plants? I have a large lot that needs some color. This plant is perfect for that but will it get out of control and cause problem with neighbers?

Might depend on where you are located. In my area, this is considered a weed that is nudging inclusion on our invasive species list.

In my region also one plant would become 200 without any help. It basically behaves like a weed and grows out of walls, gravel etc. Where are you located Robert?

Quite a seeder in my experience. Now only have one plant in one location but have hoed away the many seedlings around that (?) plant every fall for 15 years.

Haven't seen blocks of the plant but would have thought that massed Centranthus ruber would not provide very solid blocks of flower colour.

Yes: beyond the early stages the plants often look spotty in flower, with the foliage drawing the eye past the blooms.

I'm in Mendocino County of California. I had grown one of this plant before, so I know what you are saying about "spotty". But what if looked from 200' away? Would the leaves become just a patch of green and flower color dots on top?

Yes.

IF you would like to get rid of some ,I willing to take some off your hands

I have a clump that throws off a nice show for the first bloom.... I wander the garden most days.. So I deadhead it frequently through the remaining year as it sets secondary blooms. Even with the bloom heads that I miss ( which are choc-full of seeds... I haven't gotten any seedlings yes in the stone wall nearby or leave mulch that surrounds it. My only complaint would be that it can get sprawling by the end. I'm going to hack it back this coming year to see if that will keep it in check

I passed a clump still flowering on my way to work yesterday. It was growing out of someone's gravel mulch over landscape fabric. Which illustrates both the tenacity and preferred conditions of this plant and the uselessness of landscape fabric and gravel.

This is part of an 18 yr-old pre-planned garden from High Country Gardens, and is bigger than what you see. There are probably 15 centranthus plants, and they have a long bloom time.

i deadhead after the first centranthus bloom; otherwise it reseeds crazily. I suspect it would be better to cut back, rather than deadhead, to: prevent reseeds; save time; and improve the look of the plants going through the summer. I don't always get around to deadheading at the end of the summer, and I pay for it.

Centranthus has an impressive taproot, is very low water in my clay soil, and takes high heat very well. In the summer, I irrigate by drip infrequently but fairly deeply. Too much water in clay soil will make it flop, and it never gets fertilizer.

Hummingbird moths/hawk moths/sphinx moths love centranthus so much that I enclose my plants in rolls of chicken wire to discourage the neighborhood cats, who show up at sunset, sit amongst the plants, and hunt the moths.

I'm a mentally enthusiastic, but haphazard and not particularly efficient or knowledgeable gardener, and I can manage centranthus in my low precip climate. If you are willing to get to the plants when necessary to cut down on the reseeding issue, you can successfully grow centranthus. If I can do it, you can do it, as long as it's not invasive where you are.

One other point of information - it comes not only in the usual dark pink colour but occasionally will produce pale pink or white flowering plants. A garden near me has a a tall, well-kept yew hedge along the top of an old stone wall. Along the base of the hedge is a border of white C ruber. They must be roguing out any pink flowering plants that appear. The white against the dark green is simple and impressive.

Exactly, I also have the white centranthus (Snowcloud, I think...or summat similar) which is less vigorous than the pinky-reds and sits well with the shrub roses.