Dazzling dianthus varieties
Say “carnation” and some gardeners are likely to think of their grandmother’s flowers and immediately move on. Not so fast. As a recovering plant snob, I have come to appreciate the great variety now available from this venerable genus. Far from being a pedestrian flower, some of the less common varieties are real showstoppers. That doesn’t mean they have stopped being reliable and tough, long-blooming plants, but the range in color and type of flower would knock your grandmother’s socks off.
There are more than 300 species of dianthus, and most of those flooding garden centers are cultivars of what are known as border or rock garden carnations or “pinks.”
Flowers may be single, double or semi-double. They are also grouped by patterns: self (single color); fancy (with stripes or flakes); picotee (with contrasting margins); bicolor (contrasting center) and laced (contrasting center, margined in same color). Many exude a spicy fragrance.
Although the foliage isn’t quite as diverse, the linear, grass-like leaves can be green, a steel blue or, in the case of D. barbatus, even a chocolate brown. There are many books and carnation societies, but here I want to shine a spotlight on five perennial species dianthus.
Start with the utterly charming Dianthus ‘Lady Granville.’ Introduced in 1840, this classic sports 2-foot-tall stems bearing semidouble, lightly fringed white flowers that, with their swirling dark raspberry borders and center, inevitably make me think of raspberry swirl ice cream. It’s lightly fragrant and great as a cut flower.
Speaking of fringed, the ‘Lady’ has nothing on the extravagantly fringed blooms of D. arenarius and D. superbus ssp. speciosus. There’s just no other word but frilly to describe these two species. The deeply dissected pure white petals of D. arenarius especially look like five bird feathers grouped around a white center. You half expect these little ‘egrets’ to take flight at any moment.
If anything, the tall (to 4 feet) D. superbus ssp. speciosus is even flashier. Fringed pink petals splay out willy-nilly but are held together by a star-shaped green center. Addictively fragrant, the 1½-inch flowers rise above mounds of green foliage on 30-inch-tall stems, waving like little kites in the wind.
These three species are certainly a hard act to follow, but the unusual D. caryophyllus ‘Chomley Farran’ is a sight to behold. The only commercial remnant left from the 200 varieties of carnations called bizarres bred in the 1700s and 1800s, this variety produces large, purple-androse bicolor, lightly scented flowers.
Looking like tiny, festive cheerleader pom-poms, the flowers seem almost too psychedelic to be real. Arching foot-long stems make them ideal for an elevated pot or hanging basket.
Lastly, there’s the distinctive and vigorous D. barbatus. This carnation’s calling card is its dense, lowmounding foliage. Once established, its leaves turn the darkest maroon-black.
Not to be outdone, it produces 4to 5-inch, tightly held clusters of super-dark and velvety maroon flowers on foot-tall stems. In warm weather, the flowers smell strongly of chocolate. If deadheaded, plants quickly produce another wave of flowers.
Erle Nickel is an Oakland nurseryman, gardening writer and photographer. Read his blog at normsnursery.blogspot.com. E-mail: home@sfchronicle.com