DIANTHUS 'MRS SINKINS' WHITE - Caryophyllaceae family

A few years ago I bought a Dianthus 'Mrs Sinkins' and planted it in good, enriched soil towards what was then the front of a border.  It did ok but nothing to write home about.  Each year I have deepened the border, from fence to lawn, and so some shorter plants have had to be brought forward in front of my rose bushes.  Mrs Sinkins was one of them.  The plant wasn't very big, with not much by way of root, and it was dug up and more or less dropped onto the soil at the top of my garden in front of the patio where the soil is very free draining and a little on the dry side.  Mrs Sinkins gets full sun there.  Look at her now. You cannot really see from the images but the plant covers an area of about three square feet. 

White Dianthus 'Mrs Sinkins'



Dianthus are commonly called pinks and belong to the Caryophyllaceae family, as do carnations.  

'Mrs Sinkins' is a hardy perennial that is relatively easy to grow.  The silver leaves give away the fact that it likes light, well draining (even sandy) soil, and plenty of sun.  Mine grows in a clay soil at the top of my sloping garden.  It's a lovely plant that I have grown before in other gardens, and has a really sweet fragrance.  You can cut it and bring the stems indoors to put in a vase, but I don't.  There are always developing buds next to a bloom and it seems a shame to sacrifice them.



White Dianthus 'Mrs Sinkins'

I often wonder why it is that flowers bought from, say, supermarkets and other big stores never seem to have the same fragrance as the same flowers grown in my garden.  



When I was a child my grandmother used to buy me a big bunch of Sweet Williams (Dianthus barbatus) because we both loved them.  Later, in another garden to the one I have now, I grew them and they were just the same as when grandma used to buy them for me.  When I see them on sale now I always smell them with the intention of buying a bunch, or two, but they never seem to have any fragrance and so I don't bother.  It just wouldn't be the same.



Even the roses that I buy from Marks and Spencers rarely have a fragrance but the roses in my garden smell divine.  Why is that?  Why don't they sell roses that have a good scent?  Sight, touch, and fragrance are all part of the enjoyment of plants.  The Arthur Bell roses that I put in a vase the other day are still filling the kitchen with fragrance even though they are in such full bloom now they are about to fall apart.