SOUTHVIEW NURSERIES
CHEQUERS LANE, EVERSLEY CROSS,
HOOK, HAMPSHIRE RG27 0NT
Tel: 0118 973 2206
Pinks - DIANTHUS
THE FLOWERS OF THE GODS
We have a particular love of these beautiful plants and are now holders of one of the national collections of old pinks. Love of the diversity in the dianthus family has gripped gardeners since at least the 17th century when John Parkinson wrote in his 'Garden of Pleasant Flowers' and described over sixty different garden varieties and species. They are truly part of our national garden heritage.
Naming of some varieties is rather muddled. Our naming follows a meeting of pinks experts in 1993 where many flowers of pinks were brought for comparison and a consensus agreed over certain cultivar names. The assumed date of introduction of some cultivars may be open to question. What is not open to question is the intrinsic beauty of the flowers.
CULTIVATION. Pinks require a sunny position in well drained soil. Avoid planting under overhanging trees or shrubs. Feed with bonemeal in spring and dress the soil with chalk or ground limestone before planting. If your soil is heavy then add good quantities of grit or pea shingle. Growing them on a mound to allow excess water to drain away is also of benefit. Pinks withstand drought exceptionally well, but must be watered well after planting to allow them to establish.
The following are named pinks raised from cuttings and all pot grown in 7 or 9 cm pots. The old varieties flower in June and July giving a mass of scented blooms. The more modern varieties are perpetual flowering i.e. June to the first frosts or longer if protected. Dead heading is the best way to have continual flowering and mixing old and new gives the benefits of scent and long flowering.
| OLD PINKS | |||
| species/name | Description | Price | |
| Dianthus 'Arctic Star' | A good new compact cultivar with many double white blooms on short 10-15cm (4-6") stems all summer. | £3.00 | |
| Dianthus 'Betty Morton' | (Betty Norton). Introduced in the 1920s. It has single, deep rose fringed petals with a maroon eye. 25cm. |  | £3.00 |
| Dianthus 'Bridal Veil' | A lovely old variety. Strongly scented double white flowers with a flecked crimson eye. 17th century. |  | £3.00 |
| Dianthus 'Cockenzie' | syn. The Montrose Pink. Compact plants with fragrant double flowers of rosy red fringed petals with dark damson centres. Found at Montrose House Scotland. Believed to date from 1720. | £3.00 | |
| Dianthus 'Dad's Favourite' | A classic laced pink thought to be one of the few remaining Paisley pinks. It was known as A.J. MacSelf after he found it in an old garden. It has a pure white ground and is laced with ruby red. 18th.C. |  | £3.00 |
| Dianthus 'Doris' | Salmon pink with a carmine rose ring. Free flowering. AGM |  | £3.00 |
| Dianthus 'Fair Folly' | A delightful plant with single pale pink petals each of which has 2 strawberry pink marks and a central strawberry eye. Believed to have originated in the 17th century, but there is no proof of this, which doesn't matter a jot as it is very pleasing to one's own eyes. 30cm. |  | £4.00 |
| Dianthus 'James Portman' | Large fragrant showy laced maroon flowers. Very double. 38cms. June to Oct. | £3.00 | |
| Dianthus 'Joy' | Beautiful large carmine-pink double flowers on 25cm stems. An Allwood introduction pre-1965. AGM. | £3.00 | |
| Dianthus 'Laced Monarch'UVULARIA | An Allwood's introduction from 1972, good as a cut flower with large double pink flowers heavily laced with deep maroon-purple. | £3.00 | |
| Dianthus 'Lady Granville' | Beautiful slightly fringed petals, white semi double laced crimson. Strong scent. 1840. |  | £3.00 |
| Dianthus 'Lady in Red' | More like a small carnation. Double bright red flowers with strong clove fragrance like the carnations of long ago. 30cm. | £3.00 | |
| Dianthus 'Madonna' | Similar to 'Bridal Veil' with pure white fringed petals and a darker crimson mark at each petal base. 25-30cm. | £3.50 | |
| Dianthus 'Moulin Rouge' | A strongly clove scented introduction with Can-Can skirt-like double blooms with pink-purple ground charmingly laced with rich burgundy with a burgundy eye. AGM. | £3.00 | |
| Dianthus 'Mrs Sinkins' | Classic double white richly fragrant flowers. The absolute quintessence of the cottage path edging. Introduced by Turner's nursery of Slough in 1868. There are a number of different forms of this beautiful pink in commerce. Ours is the same as the one in the RHS trial ground at Wisley. |  | £3.00 |
| Dianthus 'Murray Douglas' | From a garden in Farnborough. Large double flowers with recurved petals of pink shades deep rose. Strong clove scent. |  | £4.00 |
| Dianthus 'Mystic Star' | Good neat habit with many single maroon flowers flecked with white. | £3.00 | |
| Dianthus 'Napoleon III' | A robust 'Mule Pink' possibly Sweet William crossed with Carnation. Clusters of crimson flowers above vigorous Sweet William, blu-grey foliage. Raised by A Pare 1840. | £3.50 | |
| Dianthus 'Night Star' | Tussock forming with short 10-15cm stems adorned with rich single cherry-red petals laced with delicious pale pink. AGM. | £3.00 | |
| Dianthus 'Old Square Eyes' | Found around 1980 as a chance seedling by plantswoman Nancy Mary Goodall in her garden at Newbury this lovely, robust pink has large 4-5cm single flowers of white and an unusual large pink eye which looks (almost) square. It reaches 40cm and is worth a little twiggy support. |  | £3.00 |
| Dianthus 'Paisley Gem' | We acquired this plant from the first national collection holder, Sue Farquhar who obtained her plant from the Rev Oscar Moreton. It was raised in 1798 by John Mcree, a Paisley muslin worker and Moreton got the plant from Mcree's great grandson. It had been grown in the same garden since it was raised. John Mcree was so pleased with the plant that he presented one to King George III. It is very like 'Dad's Favourite' but has larger flowers. The double white petals have an almost black-maroon eye and good lacing of the same colour. |  | £4.50 |
| Dianthus 'Pheasant's Eye' | A venerable survivor. Semi double flowers of white with a central eye of velvet maroon petals which stand upright like pheasant's ears. Amazingly we have seen pressed flowers of this variety in the Du Bois herbarium which was made between 1690 and 1723 and is held at the Botanical Library in Oxford. |  | £3.50 |
| Dianthus 'Queen of Sheba' | Pretty small single flowers with an ivory white ground laced and flaked magenta. A 'Painted Lady' type. 17th C. | £3.00 | |
| Dianthus 'Rose de Mai' | Pretty pale mauve pink petals, slightly zoned maroon. Put in your buttonhole in the morning and it will still be pumping fragrance in the evening 1820. |  | £3.00 |
| Dianthus 'Sam Barlow' | Named after a keen gardener of the 1860s it is thought to be of late 19thC. introduction. Large double, fringed very fragrant white flowers have a rich dark purple-chocolate eye. 20-25cm. |  | £4.00 |
| Dianthus 'Sweetheart Abbey' | Double crimson flowers shading to lilac at the fringed white petals' edge. Named after the abbey in south west Scotland. |  | £3.00 |
| Dianthus 'Ursula le Grove' | A very hardy pink with firm dark blue green foliage, it has large single, scented pure white flowers with very 'feathered' petals which are boldly splashed with red and eyed maroon-red. They look just like 'Star Pinks' described in 1629 by John Parkinson. Some think it was introduced by Queen Henrieta Maria, the wife of Charles I. | £3.00 | |
| Dianthus 'Valda Wyatt' | An early Cecil Wyatt introduction with stunning large double lavender-pink flowers darkening to purple-pink at the centre.30cm. | £3.00 | |
| SPECIES PINKS | |||
| Many of our favourite old named pinks developed by the natural crossing of various pinks plants in gardens, in earlier times many wild species from Europe were grown in gardens along with the more flamboyant varieties, we thought you might be interested in some which we find exciting and a pleasure to grow. Who knows you may even get a cross of your own. | |||
| Dianthus amurensis | A lovely species from East Asia 35cm branched stems display inch wide single flowers of rose-purple almost bluish with pretty deep purple central markings in Summer. |  | £3.00 |
| Dianthus carthusianorum (Grasse) | We collected the seed of these from the edge of a busy road in Provence where they were only 30cm tall. With garden growing and garden nurture they grow up to 90cm tall with slightly silver-green stems and clustered flower heads of dark pink. | £3.50 | |
| Dianthus carthusianorum | Sweet Johns. A tall seed raised species with dark green foliage and flower stems up to 90cms topped by clusters of purple flowers. Said to have been introduced by the Carthusian monks in medieval times. |  | £3.00 |
| Dianthus deltoides 'Alba' | Our native 'Maiden Pink' with creeping broad leaved stems and white flowers. Lovely ground cover. 8cms. | £2.50 | |
| Dianthus deltoides 'Luneburg Heath Maiden Pink' | From wild collected seed. Dense foliage cushions and good dark rosy-red flowers, 20cm. The heath where on 4th May 1945 the German Army surrendered. | £2.50 | |
| Dianthus deltoides 'Nelli' | Dark green leaves and flowers of rich red with a darker eye.8cms Good ground cover. | £2.50 | |
| Dianthus gratianopolitanus | The Cheddar Pink. One of our native pinks which grows on the cliffs of Cheddar Gorge in Somerset. Gardeners in the 18th and 19th centuries stripped the plants from the gorge so that now only a few plants remain. Neat mats of good silver leaves produce many delightful light pink flowers on 20cm (8") stems in May and June. | £3.00 | |
| Dianthus knappii | In 1597 the Elizabethan physician John Gerard wrote that he had 'a gillofloure with yellow flours, procured from Poland', it is almost certain that this was D. knappii as it is the only yellow flowered species. The stems reach 30-40cm with bright sulphur-yellow blooms, usually in pairs. Great fun to plant some-thing that has been grown by British gardeners for over 400 years. |  | £3.00 |
| Dianthus superbus | Its name says it all. With grassy green leaves and stems reaching 30-60cm bearing loose panicles of pure white or pale pink, deeply cut-feather-like flowers, having beautiful strong fragrance, no wonder John Parkinson wrote 'comforting the spirits and senses a far off'. Introduced in 1596. |  | £3.00 |