Early Bird® Chili Dianthus

Spicy scent and spicy orange-pink coloring is what you get when you grow the Early Bird® Chili Dianthus in your garden. A compact mound of silvery leaves, this amazing variety doesn’t just bloom in spring, but keeps flowering and flowering right into the fall. The blooms are carried on 6-inch stems above the foliage, and each stem carries 3, 4, or 5 buds, opening to 1½ inch flowers of frilly petals. The delicious color is matched by the wonderful clove fragrance that dianthus are famous for, but which has been lost in the carnations you buy at the florist shop. Enjoy it again in your garden by growing this easy, sun-loving plant. Use it in rock gardens, at the edges of your beds, especially along paths or around paved areas. Plant it in the levels of retaining walls, or grow it in pots – alone or with other low plants – to enjoy it on a table or in your porch. However you choose to grow it, you will love this great little plant that punches way above its size.

• Double flowers, 1½ inches across, with a delicious clove fragrance
• Spicy coloring of bright orange-pink is unique and beautiful
• A compact mound of silvery foliage that is evergreen and handsome in winter
• Blooms continuously from late spring into the fall
• Great choice for pots and planters

Choose a place in full sun for your Early Bird® Chili Dianthus – that way it will give you maximum blooming. Plant it in any well-drained soil. It loves sandy and gravel soils, and enjoys alkaline and limestone conditions. If you have acidic soil, add some garden lime to the soil when planting and it will love you. Deer and rabbits don’t eat it, and pests or diseases are rare. Don’t trim in fall, but leave the foliage – it gives you great winter color – and trim after the first flush of blooms. This will keep it compact and encourage lots more flowers, which you can dead-head in the normal way.