Gardening: In the pink: Dianthus – Saskatoon StarPhoenix

Baths Pink has soft pink flowers with deeply fringed petals.

Firewitch produces a profusion of magenta flowers.

Frosty Fire has bright red 2.5-cm (1-in.) flowers.

Spotty has cherry red flowers with prominent white spots from late spring to early summer.

Tiny Rubies is smaller in all aspects than the species. It bears bright pink 1-cm (0.4-in.) flowers on 5- to 10-cm (2-4 in.) stems for most of the summer.

Cottage pinks (D. plumarius) form dense mounds of linear, blue-green leaves. Fragrant pink 2.5-cm (1-in.) single or double flowers are produced in clusters of three to five on stems that are 30 to 60 cm (12-24 in.) high.

Sweetness is a seed grown variety that blooms its first year. Flowers vary from white to deep rose with red eyes and are very fragrant. It is very compact to 15 cm (6 in.) tall.

Pink Princess has light pink, semi-double flowers throughout the summer. It was developed in Cheyenne, Wyoming and has been grown in prairie gardens since the 1960s.

Sara Williams is the author of Gardening Naturally with Hugh Skinner, Creating the Prairie Xeriscape, and with Bob Bors, Growing Fruit in Northern Gardens. She gives workshops on a wide range of gardening topics throughout the prairies.

This column is provided courtesy of the Saskatchewan Perennial Society (SPS; saskperennial@hotmail.com). Check our website (saskperennial.ca) or Facebook page (facebook.com/saskperennial). All Saskatchewan Perennial Society events are on hold until further notice.

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Gardening: In the pink: Dianthus - Saskatoon StarPhoenix