Carnation: pink. [1] Florists are passionately fond of this flower, of which the strong fragrance and wide range of colours are delightful. Several treatises have been entirely devoted to the cultivation of beautiful carnations: they describe the pots in which carnations should be planted and the soil they require, how to layer, sucker, and pot them, when to store them and bring them out, how to water and cultivate them when their pistils are growing, how to remove superfluous buds and help them to flower, where they should be placed when they are in flower, and, lastly, their maintenance, seeds, and diseases. Here, we will confine ourselves to a few particular remarks taken from Bradley and Miller. [2]

These authors have found that carnations can be divided into five groups, called piquettes, painted ladies, bizarres, flakes, and flamed carnations. [3]

Piquettes always have a white ground colour and are speckled or pounced, as florists say, with red or crimson. [4] The petals of painted ladies are red or crimson above and entirely white beneath. Bizarres are striped and variegated with four different colours. Flakes are also striped but are only bicoloured. Flamed carnations have a red ground colour striped with black or dark brown. It would be futile and even impossible to distinguish the cultivars in each of these groups because the seeds produce an infinite number of new ones in every locality.

Whatever the group and cultivar, the worth and beauty of a carnation depends upon the assemblage of certain requisite qualities: 1. the stem must be strong and capable of supporting the whole weight of the flower without giving way; 2. the petals must be long, broad, thick, and firm, yet able to unfurl easily; 3. the centre pod [5] should not stand too tall above the rest of the flower; 4. the colours should be brilliant and evenly distributed; 5. the flower should be full of petals which make it tall at the centre and well rounded at the circumference.

Some carnations are 10, 12, and even 14 inches round, and have a great number of petals which also constitutes their beauty. Carnations are much finer when they are domed rather than flat and when their colours are sharp. The more evenly the variegation and ground colour are distributed, the more the flowers are prized. It is always preferable tor the stripes to stand out clearly without taking from the ground colour. [6] Well-potted variegated carnations, with the whole plant from the roots to the tips of the petals standing upright, are the most sought after, but a few imperfections are tolerated in most of these flowers in favour of a number of qualities.

The quality of these flowers is also determined by the shape of their pods: those which flower without bursting are called ‘flowers with long pods’. Those of which the petals cannot be contained in the calyx are called ‘flowers with round pods’, some being over four inches broad. It is difficult to have carnations of the desired breadth without them bursting. A large number of buds and pistils may be left on the largest carnations to prevent them from bursting so readily, but they will then grow less broad.

Carnations have no fixed height: some flower at two feet and others at four. They flower earlier or later according to the seasons in which they are sown, though the peak of the flowering season is usually towards the middle of June, when florists display the carnations which they have cultivated and name their new cultivars.

Double carnations rarely bear seeds, either because the male parts are imperfect or prevented from performing their functions by the multitude of petals, or from other, unknown, causes. Be that as it may, collectors plant a number of flowers from each of their successful double-flowered cultivars on a line at the centre of their beds, and on either side at least two rows of singles of select colours, with several Chinese pinks, which have an extraordinary range of colours, dotted between them. [7]

Chinese pinks can be singles or doubles: botanists call the first form Caryophillus sinensis, supinus, leucoii folio, flore vario, or in English the ‘variable china-pink’; and the second, Caryophillus sinensis, supinus, leucoii folio, flore pleno, or the ‘double china-pink’.

Chinese pinks have such a prodigious range of colours that in a large flower bed scarcely two flowers are identical. Moreover, since these colours are of the highest degree of beauty, only seeds from the finest pinks should be used because the seeds are prone to degenerate. Seeds from double-flowered Chinese pinks reproduce a number of double flowers, but seeds from the single-flowered form rarely produce doubles. Both forms are raised from seed and Miller may be consulted on the best means of cultivating them. [8]

I will merely add a note on layering: when the layers are lifted in autumn rather than in spring and carried to the pots or borders in which they are to flower, they are more certain to produce stronger flowers and to flower earlier, in addition to which the layers will soon be ready to be layered themselves. Whether they are transplanted in autumn or spring, they should be kept in the shade and protected from the sun for a fortnight after having been planted. Areas where they may be sheltered in winter should also be prepared, in case of hard frost.

Notes

1. ‘Pink’ can refer to a number of species of Dianthus, while ‘carnation’ refers to Dianthus caryophyllus, or clove pink and its hybrids and cultivars. See D. J. Mabberley, The Plant-book: a Portable Dictionary of the Vascular Plants (Cambridge, 1997), 223.

2. Bradley, 1718, part II, ch. 4, section ix; article ‘ Caryophyllus ’, Bradley, 1728; article ‘ Caryophyllus ’, Miller, 1752.

3. ‘Piquettes’ are now ‘picotées’.

4. Picotees are now edged, rather than speckled, with different colours. See D. J. Mabberley, The Plant-book: a Portable Dictionary of the Vascular Plants (Cambridge, 1997), 223.

5. The French term ‘coif is used in the Encyclopédie to refer to the inner petals of the carnation, while the word ‘pod’ is used in: Bradley, 1718, 1728; Miller, 1752.

6. See article Blurred, muddy.

7. The Chinese pink is Dianthus chinensis.

8. Miller recommends sowing the seeds before the end of March and forcing them under bell-glasses until they are sturdy enough to be exposed to the open air and eventually pricked out (article ‘ Caryophyllus ’, Miller, 1752).