Late spring and early summer welcome the arrival of Dianthus blooms with gusto. Their attractive small pink flowers flower in the masses, adding relentless colour to your beds, borders, containers, and baskets for months on end. Want to know what our favourites are so you can grow a great summer display? Keep on reading!

What is Dianthus?

Dianthus, more commonly known as Pinks or Garden Pinks, are small bedding plants that flower from late spring and into summer. They can be perennial, annual, or even biennial. Sweet Williams is also part of the Dianthus family (Dianthus barbatus). These tiny plants are compact but striking.

They’re often grown in containers or at the front of a border, where they can add impressive amounts of colour. Appearing in shades of pink, cerise, or even sometimes bicolours mixing pink with white. Here are our top dianthus picks for your summer garden.

Our Favourite Dianthus Varieties

• The Dianthus Hardy Pinks Collection provides blooms in striking colours of pink and white. Perfect for borders, containers, and baskets. This collection includes 1 each of Dianthus Doris, Devon Wizard, Letitia Wyatt E, Moulin Rouge, Cranmere Pool, and Bridal Star.
  
• Sweet William Messenger Mix provides hardy biennials that appear in striking blooms, typically shades of dark to light pink, white, and even some red. Can be used on dishes, as the flowers are edible. Great for cutting! Plant in borders and containers for a beautiful seasonal display.
  
• Dianthus deltoides provides brilliant evergreen perennials with clusters of showy cerise flowers with deep crimson markings at the heart and finely frayed edges. ‘Maiden Pinks' are perfect for a sunny rockery, bed, or border, providing weed-suppressing ground cover all year round with the flowers lasting from June until September. The Royal Horticultural Society has given Dianthus deltoides the Award of Garden Merit for its reliable performance, so you know it’ll be a quality addition to your garden.