Scent First® Romance Dianthus

Oh my, the Scent First® Romance Dianthus is an absolute charmer, with large, fragrant, 2-inch blooms of the most wonderful soft pink. It forms a tight mound of silver-green foliage, and from April to October, in warmer zones, it blooms more-or-less continuously. The season will be a little shorter in cool zones. The large flowers are perfect for cutting, and produced in such abundance that you can take some for vases without affecting your garden display. The 9-inch stems carry up to 7 blooms, keeping those flowers just coming and coming. The blooms of this beautiful plant are fully-double, with serrated edges on the ends of the petals, and a wonderful, soft but bright pink with salmon tones. In the center of the blooms there is a slightly darker pink eye. Grow it at the front of your perennial beds, in pots for a table on your terrace, or in window boxes, where it will give you color and fragrance for months – a great change from the same old annual flowers and geraniums.

• Beautiful large blooms of a rich, romantic, light pink
• Attractive silver-green foliage makes a great background for the flowers
• Clove-scented, fragrant blooms look great in the garden or in vases
• Blooms from spring to fall
• As good in window boxes and pots as it is in the garden

Plant your Scent First® Romance Dianthus in full sun, or with just a touch of shade each day. Grow it in a well-drained soil of any type, including sandy soils, and ones that have stones and gravel in them. It prefers neutral or alkaline soils, and if you have an acidic one, add a handful of garden lime to the soil before planting and everything will be great. Once established it has good resistance to summer drought. Deadhead flowers as needed, to encourage more, and use some liquid fertilizer for flowering plants from time to time, especially when growing in pots – it keeps those blooms coming strong. When dead-heading, cut the stems low down among the foliage, to encourage new growth, and don’t cut to the ground in fall, as you do for your other perennials – leave the carpet of foliage through winter.