Above we have the carnations and pinks from the RHS Aberdeen show - beautiful flowerw which we would not have been able to match this year. I really like the carnations with the red tinged edges - very exotic.
We would noth have been abloe to match because only one set of dianthus came up for us this year - the trailing carnations in the hanging baskets. The others (the florist carnations in the front tubs, the carnations in the back tubs) did not get beyond the leafy stage and some of them barely got that far. This is a combination of dark and relatively cold weather 9carnations like it warm) and the bunny-mowers working out how to get into the tubs. in the front the carnations were reduced to twigs and nowt else. I dug them up and moved them into the improved stalag at the back and they have already picked up within a week. The tufts of leaves are surviving now that the rabbits can't get in . Hopefully there will be enough time for them to get bushy and put down enough supplies in the roots to last out the winter. A few of the bought in pinks did okay - though not spectacularly well - putting on plenty of leaf so that they should be big enough to flower next year - I think that the florist's carnations are fairly touch and go for this winter. Immediately below are the transplanted florists carnations.
Above are the dianthus in the back tubs. You can see that the wicker cage has heloed the carnations in one basket (thought the clematis that was supposed toi crawl up the frame barely appeared this year) whiole in the other the dpinks round the edge are doing okay - staying green and growing up. However in this tub the scabious and the polyanthus that were put in as plunge pots aren't doing too well because of the slugs. (and the rabbits too I think - something is biting the flower stalks off the scabious in the bottom centre). I really wanted to see the polyanthus but they must be flowering around now and I am in libya so no luck - they are supposed to smell divine. hopefully the few that are up out of the way of the p[ests will produce some nice flowers for jiurie.
but back to the carnations.
As i said only the ones in the baskets did well - and the ones that did the best were actually last years ones that had over wintered and then been planted out. I guess it is a little early for this years seedlings to do well.
The plants are extremely woody as this is their second year but the blooms are great. I think that the plants will be too big for baskets for next year but we'll see.
Here are our trailing carnations -
