Dianthus Evening Star

Dianthus 'Evening Star' is part of a new series of hybrid, dwarf and fragrant carnations, with vibrant colours. It is perfectly suited to the ornamentation of flower pots and containers. Equally at home in rockeries, this hardy small perennial forms a dense and low cushion composed of fine evergreen grey-green leaves. It boasts a brilliant summer flowering of an unusual colour. The brown-red heart of its semi-double flowers is surrounded by bright pink. It will thrive in full sun, in well-drained soil.

'Evening Star' belongs to the Caryophyllaceae family. It is a recent cultivar, developed in England and given an Award of Garden Merit by the Royal Horticultural Society, somewhat equivalent to the golden palm of the plant world. The growth of this carnation is quite fast. Its adult size will not exceed 10 to 15cm (4 to 6in) in height when flowering, with a spread of 20 to 30cm (8 to 12in). This carnation forms a tight clump. From June to August, it produces solitary, semi-double flowers with fringed edges carried by slender and short stems. The flowers bear a wide central halo of mahogany colour adorning a corolla of a bright magenta pink. The flowers' fragrance is more pronounced in hot weather. Its linear, glabrous, evergreen and leathery leaves are of a superb grey-green.

Dianthus 'Evening Star' is ideal for borders, embankments, and dry rockeries. It can accompany other flowering cushions such as helianthemums, silenes, dwarf artemisia (Artemisia lanata), wall bellflowers, Caucasian rock cress, Phlox subulata, and Delosperma cooperi, or Erigeron karvinskianus and bloody cranesbill (Geranium sanguineum). This plant looks lovely between the stones of a wall or paving, or in a flower pot. It adapts very well to pot culture, in light soil, but will require regular watering and some fertiliser additions during the season to remain floriferous.