Hi Pat just to pop in and say it's hard to go wrong with dianthus! Years ago I ordered 8 or 10 varieties and started them all from seed and had them for quite a while. They have since all died out but I remember there wasn't a bad one in the bunch. Even the ones rampantly sold as annuals come back and are so lovely.

I looked up fire witch and it is a beauty!

You have motivated me to try them again. I like the taller ones, too used to have some lovely white ones with long stems very elegant. I am shamefully unable to pull off the names.

Siberian Blue and it reseeds

For sentimental reasons I like Mrs Sinkins. It is an old pass along standard and was in my grandfather's garden. I also really like Gran's favourite. I'm not very keen on the fluorescent pinks and reds and for me it's no scent, no point where pinks are concerned.

I agree about not having a favorite but insisting on fragrance. I always sniff the flowers before I buy.

I'm very interested in this thread as I love dianthus. For years, I had a row of cottage pinks that survived from 2005 until 2010 when we had 90 days over 90 degrees.

For the last 2 years, I've sown mixed seeds that have bloomed gloriously, often past Thanksgiving...but, this spring, with rain and mild temps the dianthus has really performed. I keep cutting and it keeps blooming, but summer will show up here soon.

This is a photo of mixed seeds. If you recognize these, I'd love to know the names so that I can plant the colors in specific locations.

Thanks,
Cameron

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Source: definingyourhome.blogspot.com via Freda on Pinterest

Here is a link that might be useful: frilly bloomers

I've planted the same mix around my birdbath for the last three years Cameron, only I buy transplants. I wish I hadn't thrown the tags away. Perhaps it is still in the trash box in the barn, I'll try to dig it out tomorrow.

Hope this isn't OT, but I have a question. Is Sweet William considered a Dianthus? I used to buy the most fantastic SW by the basketful at a local grocery, dug by a gardener and brought in for the store to sell. They would return the following year but not longer.

Yes sweet william is dianthus barbatus. Years ago I tried them all ordered from T&M a dozen varieties. They really were all fun but they are rather short lived and for me they didn't self sow. I need to add them back so delightful. Love sweet william,

Thanks all for your input on the dianthus. Fragrance is a must for me too. The strong clove fragrance and the blue green foliage is what first attracted me to the firewitch. Another thing I like about it was how nice and neat in looked as an edger plant in the gardens. The only thing I am not sure of is the "bright" pink color. Did I say bright??? It looked beautiful in the peony garden I'm just not sure I would like that shocking color in mine.

My firewitch is an absolutely stunning colour - I have it next to a sunpower hosta and some jacob's ladder and I absolutely love it. I have some taller lighter pink ones that are fragrant, but don't know the name....I inherited it. I have planted some new varieties this year.....I can't see me hating any of them.

Another vote for 'Mrs Sinkins' I also had the pink form but have neither of them now. A great cottage garden flower, when I had them they were planted to drape over a low rock wall. Unfortunately you never see them for sale anymore at least not in my neck of the woods.

Annette

Flowers aside, I'm on the lookout for Dianthus simulans. That foliage is tough to beat.

tj

Here is a link that might be useful: D. simulans

Greenthumb, I also read that it is ever green? Is that true?

One of my favorite dianthus is "Rose de Mai" which is an heirloom cultivar. It has a wonderful clove scent and, given the right conditions, is an excellent repeat bloomer. I bought mine from Joy Creek Nursey.

Here's a picture of it intermingled with Geranium Johnson's Blue.

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I love Bath's Pink -- a pure pink with lovely greyish foliage and wonderful scent. I had Firewitch a couple of years ago and I had to get out my sunglasses for it. Too harsh, so I'm not altogether too sad that it vanished. I just pull out big clumps of dianthus and stick them around. It roots easily -- very cooperative that way. I try to keep cutting off the spent flowers to keep in going, but that never works. So love it while it's blooming!
lucia

Do you all have a problem with dianthus foliage getting ratty during the summer?

I am reading that Cheddar Pinks keep nice foliage up until fall so I am considering these for along the front of a garden bed. I have a few small bunches of Bedazzled that look great up until about now and then the foliage starts to brown. I have tried shearing back after flowering and leaving it alone, but either way it browns up.

So far I've had no problems with the foliage, but I do mulch around them and water once a week during real dry spells. It's very reliable in the sandy soil around the bird bath. Haven't tried the Cheddar Pinks.

Another favorite of mine is "Sops in Wine" nice fragrance once used to flavor wine. Annette

I love the white flowering pinks since my gardens tend towards blue and yellow colors during late spring. At a previous garden I had what I think was Dianthus superbus ssp. speciosus (AKA ssp alpestris) - very highly fringed and also scented strongly enough that one plant perfumed a large area.

Currently I have Greystone which has nice foliage all year and white flowers that fill this garden with scent for about 3 weeks. There are many flower scents that I find unappealing, but I love Dianthus.
From this spring, Greystone is the large white-flowered area in the lower center of this photo.
{{gwi:262168}}From June 5, 2012

and here is what it looks like in the winter before the snow flies around the feet of the arborvitae. (This started out as 3 tiny plants in the spring of 2008, and this photo was from December 2010.) It hasn't spread too much since then and looks this neat all summer after I've taken hand shears to it for deadheading.
{{gwi:278791}}From December 2010

nhbabs - beautiful. How do you keep the grass from growing up through your patch of dianthus? I would plant more carpets of them if I could handle the weeding, and usually when I do pick grass or weeds from them I end up disturbing the foliage and roots too much.

My favourite dianthus is without doubt Siberian Blue, it cascades so gracefully over the edges of my raised beds and the colour of the flowers is lavender blue. A very beautiful perennial!

Schoolhouse - I am a proponent of lasagna bedding: 8 inches of well-rotted horse manure (free from a couple of horse owners on my road), covered with heavy cardboard and then 3 inches of woodchips from the family woodshop. I plant through this as I have time and acquire plants. Beds are edged with the ugly black plastic bedding that one finds at big box stores buried so just the round rim shows, and then the inside edge is lined with old brick. Mower wheels run on the brick edge and grass hides the ugly plastic so that one really only sees the brick. You can sort of see both parts of the edging in this photo where grass is a bit sparse.
{{gwi:278789}}From June 5, 2012

And here's a closeup with more sparse grass:
{{gwi:685650}}From June 5, 2012