Pinks and carnations

Pinks and carnations belong to the genus Dianthus. They are mostly perennial plants, some of them are annual or biennial and some are low sub-shrubs with woody basal stems. They are grown for their attractive, long-lasting and usually flagrant flowers that appear in spring and summer. They can be used in mixed borders, entry way beds, cut flower gardens, scented gardens, butterfly gardens and cottage gardens, rock gardens or grown in pots. Pinks flowers may be in one color, with a central zone or eye of a second color or marked with different color just inside the edge of every petal and usually with a central eye of the same color. Carnations flowers may be in one color, in two or more colors or edged in a contrasting color. They make great cut flowers and also hold their color when pressed making them useful for press flowered crafts and arrangements.

If grown in the garden, pinks and carnations prefer a sunny, open site and a free-draining soil. Prepare the planting bed in autumn by single digging and incorporating humus-forming material and then in spring fork in a balanced fertilizer. Water the plants before planting and set them in moist soil 35-45 cm apart. Water the plants only if the weather is too dry. Taller plants may need staking. In winter clear away dead leaves and firm back the young plants that might have been lifted by frost.

All pinks and carnations can be propagated from cuttings but the best results are obtained by layering. Also they can be grown from seeds but most of them may not breed true or will not flower in the first year.

Cuttings from pinks should be taken in summer by choosing healthy shoots with 4 or 5 pairs of leaves. Trim off the bottom pair of leaves just below a joint and insert the cuttings in a mixture of standard cutting compost and sand in equal parts. Cover with a plastic bag or put them in a propagator. After 2-3 weeks they will form roots and you can pot them separately in standard potting compost. Keep them in a cold frame or greenhouse until spring.

Layering will be done after the carnations have flowered using one-year-old plants. Around the plant that you intend to layer dig in equal parts of sand and cutting compost to a depth of 7 cm. Choose few well-spaced, non-flowering sideshoots and remove all but the top 4-5 pairs of leaves from every shoot. Below the node with the lowest leaves cut downwards through the next node forming a tongue, pin the shoot so the tongue is held in the prepared soil. After they have rooted detach them and plant them separately.