I'm very disappointed in the hardiness of some of my newer Dianthus. I had one that I received in a trade a couple of years ago and it died out in a year. I purchased a really pretty orange sherbet Dianthus called SuperTrouper Orange. I grew it in a pot last summer and wintered it in an unheated garage attached to our house. SuperTrouper Orange never made it through the winter. I just rechecked my Scent First Sugar Plum Dianthus and there is absolutely NO green on and around it anywhere. A lot of it died out the winter before last but I did get some late bloom on it last summer, after it greened up and grew a bit. I'm almost positive it's dead too. I purchased Desmond last year from Bluestone Perennials due to its advertised long bloom season. I had two flowers on it the whole summer. One was eaten by a rabbit before I fenced it. I had lots of green growth but no flowers. It also looks very bad right now but I'll give it some time to see if it will green up before contacting Bluestone for a replacement.
Has anyone else had problems with some of the newer Dianthus and hardiness? I'm going to post this message to the perennial board as well.
Linda
Are the newer varieties of Dianthus less hardy for you?
Linda, just saw this. There certainly is a much bigger variety of dianthus available these days than there ever was in the old days. As for whether it returns...it's too early to say. We definitely planted different sizes and habits of dianthus in different types of places. Now I am dying to know if they came back!
I received a nice piece of SuperTrouper Orange last fall in a trade. It was very healthy and put it in the best soil we have - our veggie garden - to spend the winter. It is dead now, so after two tries, I think I can safely say that this plant is NOT hardy in our zone. It was a very mild winter here too. So this series of Dainthis are better grown here as annuals.
I'd love to know which ones you had return, carrielamont.
Linda
I'll go out some time this week. Our daughter housesat for us for 3 years and really neglected all the gardens. And still, plants that survived alive until we got back in fall 2014 died that winter, the terrible 2014-15 winter.
We are bit-by-bit reclaiming the house and yard, but it's a lot of work. Last year, we randomly stuck random plants in here and there in the front yard. Some of those were Dianthus species.
I'll look forward to your post. Dianthus Firewitch and Bath's Pink are very hardy here - BP is so hardy and prolific, it's starting to move out into the lawn from the front of the flower bed. My only complaint about both of them, and BP in particular, is a short bloom season. Firewitch will rebloom a bit if deadheaded. The Dianthus sold here as annuals and that are grown from seed - bloom all summer the first year. And they tend to come back but only bloom in the spring the second year and beyond. Maybe I'll but the annual bedding Dianthus and place them in the front of the beds and I know I'll get continuous bloom.
Linda