In the pinks
THESE CHEERFUL LITTLE FLOWERS ARE A GREAT WAY TO ADD SCENT AND COLOUR TO YOUR GARDEN
PINKS are ideal for small-scale gardeners who know a little treasure when they see it. Being real sun-worshippers, the plants’ waxy, grass-like, silvery-blue or grey-green leaves, compact shapes and restricted root systems make them perfect for hot, dry pockets of poor, shallow soil.
They are totally at home in containers, rock gardens and raised beds – even traditional hotspots at the foot of south-facing walls. Pinks team up well with other small, slow-growing sun lovers such as silver feathery Artemisia schmidtiana ‘Nana’, thrift, houseleeks and ornamental thymes, as well as fellow chalk-lovers such as gypsophila and scabious.
There are hundreds to choose from, many with wonderful scent. Modern pinks, such as the famous salmon-pink ‘Doris’, flower prolifically all summer from June to September. Then there are the stocky rockery pinks and their numerous hybrids such as ‘Little Jock’, all with a long season.
The collectors’ favourites are old-fashioned pinks, such as ‘Fenbow Nutmeg Clove’, which are
known for their rich, spicy fragrance. Most of this group have a short flowering season of around six weeks in June and July.
Border carnations behave like modern pinks but they’re taller and stronger with larger flowers, more like carnations you buy from the florist.
Being rather floppy, these usually need the support of a low cagetype plant frame.
Whichever type you opt for, they have one thing in common – they are a little short-lived. At the age of two most pinks are in their prime, at three they are getting past their peak, and by four, most varieties are visibly declining, with fewer flowers, balding stems and thinning mats of foliage with areas of die-back. By five they’ve often died off entirely.
If you don’t want to replace your plants every few years it pays to propagate stock regularly. It’s especially urgent for old-fashioned pinks, which die out fastest and – being scarce – are hardest to replace. But it’s a good idea to take cuttings of any pinks in their second or third summer.
Don’t leave it any longer – older plants lose their powers of regeneration so cuttings can prove difficult to root.
Done at the right time, propagating pinks is easy. Shortly after their first flush of flowers is over (or in the case of old-fashioned pinks, their only annual flush of flowers) you’ll see a few new strong non-flowering growths.
When these are two or three inches long, around early to mid
July, nip them off close to the base. To turn them into cuttings simply peel away a few lower leaves, then push four or five in round the edge of a pot filled with a 50:50 mixture of multi-purpose peat-free compost and sand.
Stand them on a windowsill indoors, in good light but out of strong sun, and after six to eight weeks, when you can see them starting to grow, pot them up individually.
By next spring you’ll have strong young plants ready to take their place in the garden.
Even if you don’t need them as replacements, it’s great to have spares for new projects or to pass on to friends.
Pinks are always popular and you can never have too much of a good thing.