Red Dianthus Seeds

Would you look at this big, tall, bushy Red Dianthus. No shrinking violet, Red Dianthus is as vigorous and determined to bloom as its size would indicate. And the flowers are gorgeous—neatly serrated and suffused with fire-engine-red petals around a small rosy-pink eye. Best of all is that this interspecific hybrid is prepared to overwinter all the way through zone 5 in the north. No more buying new plants for a few years.

Red Dianthus is a cross of D. barbatus (the beloved Bachelor’s Button) with other species, and Red Dianthus has the best merits of all of them. The blooms are incredibly profuse in sunny to partly shaded settings. Cut them for the vase and their subtle clove-like scent really comes into its own indoors; let them stay in the garden and they are a siren for butterflies. Red Dianthus is so tall, sturdy, and profuse.

And Red Dianthus backs up all that beauty with superior garden performance. Red Dianthus grows robustly and puts up with environmental challenges from heat and humidity to poor soil, reaching 18 to 24 inches high (seriously) and up to a foot wide. When winter comes, Red Dianthus will die back in colder areas, but pop right up again in spring. At last, a dianthus that can survive severe weather like a true perennial.

Deer leave Red Dianthus alone, but pollinators adore Red Dianthus. And the seed is easy to start in the Bio Dome indoors in late winter or in the garden after danger of frost.Red Dianthus likes full sun in the north, dappled or part shade farther south and west.