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June 2004
Treasured
by gardeners for centuries, Dianthus has a place in virtually
every garden, and holds several places in mine. Dianthus
are wonderful foliage plants with the bonus of fragrant spring
flowers. They come in various colors from white to pink to
red, and have single, semi-double, or fully double carnation-like
flowers. Most are fragrant, and smell like clove. Although
we grow some of the more common mixed pink and white varieties,
and some of the bigger pink and red carnations, we are also
growing a red heirloom variety that has the biggest clustered
flower heads I've ever seen on a Dianthus. I
think it's a perennial, but I guess we'lll find out. The guy
at the plant store was kind of blown away too because he couldn't
remember what it was or how they got it. The plant really
looked that unusual, which is why we bought it, but unfortunately
it had no name, and the guy at the store had no clue either
on how or where to look it up so I can't tell you for sure
what it is until I ask my friend who runs the Botanical Gardens.
A picture will have to wait because right now it's in slow
bloom mode and old blooms are going to seed, making the plant
look a little scraggly until I have time to prune it back,
and new growth will start to appear.
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