Dianthus come in beautiful colors of pink, rose, carmine, red, purple and bicolors, and as a bonus they have at least a faint scent. I always include some of the annual dianthus in our flower pots by the front door because they bloom all the time and look great without needing deadheading.
Little care, beautiful, reliable, what’s not to like? Here are the dianthus in this year’s pot by the front door. This one gets the most sun and it is right against a south wall on the porch so it also gets a lot of heat. Dianthus are tough enough to take the conditions in the pot and thrive all summer.
Last Year’s Dianthus in Pots June 2015
In fact, dianthus are so tough that the annual varieties come back every year. Each spring I find dianthus plants growing in my flower pots from the year before. They winter over all by themselves, even in brutal winter weather like we had the last two years in 2013-14 and 2014-15 with arctic vortexes and weeks of cold, windy days.
This year I put plants from one pot back into the new pots. The bright pink one above and both the red and pink and white bicolor below are both full size now, about a month after being planted back in the porch pots.
Last Year’s Dianthus Redux 2015
The dianthus we get aren’t the usual ones that come in 4-packs at the garden center, they are sold as annuals. We pick whichever colors appeal the most that day and ever since we moved here to southwest Michigan I’ve had almost all my pinks come back the next year.
The first time this happened I was surprised. We had not emptied the pots on the porch as usual and once the little plants showed green I decided to see what happened.
We weren’t sure how well the plants would do the second summer so I put most of them in the main garden out back, used them as edging plants. This group here is from the 2012 pots in our front porch! They survived the winter of 2012, bloomed all summer in 2013, survived the incredible cold of 2013-4, bloomed all 2014 and are blooming once again.
Dianthus from 2012 Pots Underplanting Peonies May 2015
Pinks are small but loaded with flower power. You can see how they tuck into those small spaces at the front of my border in between larger plants.
Dianthus Tucked Away May 2015
My dianthus were the first plants to bloom this summer, right with the daffodils and they will last all summer long. Here they are with the yellow iris.
Dianthus and Iris Blooming Late May 2015
Right now they look a bit sad from the rain and the peonies flopping all over on top of them but they will perk back up. I took this photo about a month ago before the peonies flung flowers (and petals) all over.
Beautiful Colors Dianthus May 2015
The other dianthus we grow is Sweet William and this year I tried Sweet Wivelsfield. The Sweet Williams both come back as perennials and will reseed. This photo shows some young plants that sprouted last summer plus some older ones with buds.
Sweet Williams Along the Fence Getting Their First 2015 Blossoms
This summer they only bloomed strong for a couple weeks, followed by scattered blossoms. Once they are done blooming they look yucky if you let them stay intact long enough to set seeds, which we do. I forgot to get a picture (again) when they were looking their best. Here they are getting ready to bloom in the main part of the bed.
Sweet Williams Preparing to Bloom May 2015
One year the Springhill flower catalog showed Canterbury Bells with Sweet Williams that looked like a beautiful combination with complementary bloom time, color and height. This year I planted a few Canterbury Bell seeds. They are slow to germinate and so far none are up. They will be right next to the Sweet Williams in the picture above.
Sweet Wivelsfield is a lot like annual dianthus, a cross with Sweet Williams. No idea how it will do but it’s planted in a few spots where I ran out of repeating dianthus.
If you have dianthus in your pots this summer, try leaving the pots as-is over the winter and see whether you get the lovely volunteers back next spring.
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