Growing Carnations

Growing carnations is easy gardening if you follow these growing guidelines. In fact, this name is the common name for a large plant family - the Dianthus family with approximately 300 different species. Carnation is the name normally given to the plant Dianthus caryophyllus (you don't really need to know this) :-) but this is the classic florists plant that has been grown in gardens since the Greek and Roman empires flourished.

Growing Conditions

Grow in full sun. Don't bother trying to grow this in shady gardens as it will turn into a flopping-over mess.

Grow in well-drained soils but moderately fertile ones. This means add lots of compost to the planting area.

Do not grow in clay soils as the winter-wet will rot out the crowns.

Flowering Tricks

The modern hybrids will give you several different flushes of blooms over the course of a growing season.

You can help this along by deadheading (taking off spent blooms at the bottom of their stem) to encourage new bloom growth.

You can also get more flowers from one plant by pinching off the new growth early in the season to force branching from along each growing part of the plant. If you don't pinch, you'll get a good flower show from the main growth branches.

If you do pinch them off when they get to about 6 inches long, (take a half inch pinch) then you'll find the extra flowering shoots will turn your plant into a spectacular flower show.

Hardiness

The florists carnation is moderately hardy into USDA zone 4 but will be lost in tough winters. There are other members of the Dianthus family that are much hardier.

I've found that mice and slugs love to eat the crowns and tender shoots of this plant so do take care not to mulch it too close to the crown (pull the mulch back 8 inches from the crowns).

Propagation

Carnations are easy from seed although the nicer varieties will grow reliably from cuttings. Note the nicer hybrids will not come true from seed so you do have to take tender tip cuttings if you want to propagate them.

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