You might not know the term Caryophyllaceae but I guarantee you’d be able to spot a carnation, which is part of this family. Garage forecourt carnations have been having a semi-ironic fashion moment as a cut flower for a while now, but I’m yet to see them making a garden comeback.
I’d always dismissed the whole family as fusty, old-fashioned bedding plants for fussy little gardens. But it turns out that whoever is in charge of the carnation comms is having a good run. I keep seeing them around. Rose campion, another Caryophyllaceae, has even turned up in my garden – or rather, it has survived there. I didn’t plant it, and a photo from last July shows a scorched wasteland (it’s now a haven for moths, grasshoppers and bees, which shows what not mowing can do). But they’re biennial (they take two seasons to get from seed to flower), so I guess it was biding its time. It’s bright pink with a soft grey leaf, and not the kind of thing I’d choose, but I’m enjoying it so much I’ll be encouraging it to self-seed in the wildflower patch.
The carnation campaign continued at Murray Edwards College in Cambridge, which has gorgeous gardens, including an utterly magical cutting bed, harvested by the gardening team so the students can have cut flowers in their rooms – how nice is that? Head gardener Caitlin Sparksman and her team showed me around, and there, mingling with the poppies, cosmos, cornflowers, sweetpeas and nasturtiums, were sweet williams. Boiled-sweet coloured and bushy, they’re charming and cottagey in the vase (and last well when cut), but looked surprisingly contemporary thrown in with everything else.
Now I’m convinced. Murray Edwards’ cutting bed is in its fourth year, with perennials in the middle (bulbs in the spring, chrysanths gearing up, dahlias on their way), and a mixture of planted and self-seeded annuals surrounding them. The corners were bolstered by bunny tail grass, which looked as cute as it did designed, and then sweet williams, poking through.
Because they’re biennials you should sow some now if you want flowers next summer. Sweet williams are considered so easy to grow they frequently come up as recommended plants for children, and as they’re hardy, you can sow them directly into the ground. Weed and water the soil before you sow, and then keep the ground moist until they get established. There will be foliage in the first year, and flowers the next.
I’ve ordered Dianthus barbatus ‘Barbienne Salmon’, ‘Sooty’ and ‘Chiltern Seeds Pastel Mix’ for good measure, and will be scattering them into the gaps in the wildflower patch at the end of the garden.
