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Pick your Pinks for Summer

© Susan Ward

There's a lot more to the Dianthus family than carnations, and many members of this family are much more at home in your garden. Don't get me wrong; I love carnations (Dianthus caryophyllus). But if you've ever tried to grow them in your garden, you know how disappointing they can be. Instead of the glorious perfect beauties you see at the florist's or grocery store, you end up with a floppy mess with blooms lying on the ground. Unless you have a greenhouse, carnations are a poor choice for the home gardener.

Pinks, on the other hand, which get their common name from the edges of their blooms, which look as if someone cut them with pinking shears, are garden superstars. No wonder they've been popular additions to borders and beds for hundreds of years; no classic cottage garden would be complete without them. They're showy, easy-care, and many of them are sweetly scented and excellent for cutting. Available in an incredible range of fancy, picotee, bicolor and laced bloom types, most dianthus species and cultivars prefer full sun and well-drained, slightly akaline soil.

Perhaps the best known dianthus is the Sweet William (dianthus barbatus). A bushy clusterhead pink, Sweet Williams hold their flowers in a tight rounded group atop each stem, blooming from late spring through early summer. The Roundabout series of cultivars, which grow 8 inches tall, bloom in a wide range of single and bicolors; the much larger Electron Strain, which has single and bicolor flowers in red, pink, rose or white with rose eyes, grows up to 24 inches tall and is suitable for cutting. A very special Sweet William to look for is 'Nigricans', an heirloom with crimson-black flowers and dark purple foliage which grows up to 20 inches tall. I haven't found this one as a bedding plant yet, but you can order seeds and see a picture at Franklin Hill Garden Seeds (http://www.nb.net/~franklin/FHGS_Perenni... ).

Dianthus chinensis (China Pinks) deserve to be more widely known and grown. These bushy, short-lived perennials or biennials produce masses of pink, red or white deeply-fringed, intricately patterned flowers in summer. May cultivars have been developed. 'Fire Carpet' which grows 8 inches tall, has true scarlet flowers; 'Parfait', which grows up to 12 inches tall, has a range of colors including bicolors. There's a good picture of China pinks and more information about growing them at GardenGuides (http://www.gardenguides.com/flowers/annu... ).

One of the best dianthus for weather resistance and long season color is a cross between the China pink and the Sweet William; Dianthus Telstar Series. Bushier and hardier than their parent China pinks, these annuals or biennials produce flowers in strong shades of pink, red or white, including picotees. To see an example of what Telstar looks like in a border, go to http://members.tripod.com/cjjj/telstar.h... .