Dianthus Shows: Part One

   If you grow carnations, to most people that means PFs or Perpetual Flowering Carnations that can give you blooms all year round if you want.  The other members of the Dianthus family are the Pinks, which are like mini carnations and come in a wide variety of types, and the Border Carnations or just Borders, which are as large as the PFs but smoother without a serrated edge. Borders only flower from June to August. They are not widely grown but should be as they are hardy and produce many flowers per plant. For exhibition purposes these are reduced to one flower per plant, unless you are growing two year old plants. Most of us propagate new stock each year for the most part.

This year, I've been growing both PFs and Borders for shows. Most of the PF growers who go in the shows grow a large number of plants and dedicate one or more large greenhouses or tunnels to them. I don't know the average number but I certainly know a few who grow 300 or more PFs which amounts to thousands of flowers over the year. Border growers on the other hand, especially when showing them, tend to grow the same sort of numbers of plants in pots but with only one flower per plant: you are talking maybe 300 blooms over roughly an eight week period.

Each year is different. This year we didn't have lots of frost, maybe just one or two nights. We had a dry spring, then a very hot period, then thunderstorms. At the moment in late July, my area is set to receive rain on most days. For some Border growers, this year was very early in terms of flowering and some plants started flowering five weeks early. Come the shows, there was not much left for some. In England, there are three Border areas that concern me and my fellow growers, these being the Lancashire Moors, where my own plots are, Hull and Doncaster where Phil Cross, Barrie Gamble and Billy Stokes are and the North East where Keith Mastaglio, Liam Leger and other growers live. I am usually later flowering my Borders than the others because my plots are high above sea level near Winter Hill. But that's not the only thing that makes a difference. English weather not only splits North and South but also East and West. So some years, I can flower out before the others. Mostly it's the other way round.

Many not only flowered out early this year but flower size was generally down. I have to bear this in mind as I was experimenting with pot size on some borders and the season has perhaps skewed the results a bit. Barrie Gamble had said to me in 2016 at Atherton that Borders could be flowered perfectly well in four inch pots. I tried this on some and produced good flowers. However, the stems were not as good as my other stock. What I have found generally is that plants grown outside and only brought under cover when showing colour never have weak stems. Bring them into a glasshouse earlier than that and even with some glass removed and regular damping down, it's not easy to keep the temperature down in hot weather ( I don't have electricity up the plots) and some stems suffer and the flowers droop or as I call it 'go all wangy'.  Not what you want. The temptation with 13cm pots of Borders is to think that you can stand them pot-thick and thus get more in the same space but they can get drawn up. Next year I shall go back to my 15C pots for all of my Borders except those I propagate for the society to sell at Atherton and Harrogate.

The first show was on Sunday 16th July at Doncaster, home of the Yorkshire Carnation Society.

Entries were down on last year and growers who would normally think nothing of bringing 200 pinks turned up with very few. Borders were thin on the ground as well and the very few PF classes weren't exactly overflowing.

In the Borders I won the grandiose sounding British Border Championships with three vases of three but I was unopposed as the others didn't have enough left, always a disappointment.

The above seedling of mine was admired by those present. It has a strong clove scent and is to be called 'Bradshaw Venus'. I took some others that I have been bulking up and the one below is a rough example of one which has done well this year, a crimson clove type to be called 'Bradshaw Heartblood'. I'll have some better photos from other shows later.

Below is a rather wangy example of another seedling which I used in the scented class, called 'Bradshaw Blessing'.

The best bloom in the Borders went to Phil Cross for this lovely example of 'Clunie'.

In the PFs, I had no competition in the three selfs or the three fancies. For the fancies I used three Clara's Choice like the one below. I don't grow as many PFs as I do Borders - I only have sixty this year in a 10x8 greenhouse which I have to keep on top of because they are quite tightly spaced and sprayed regularly to keep off the red spider mite.

This was my 'station' at the show. The box on the left holds 28 Borders and the crate a further 20 Borders or PFs with a few more flowers in the white tubed bin.

Below is a shot of five Mystic Mel bred by Phil Cross.

Below are three Winter Wonderland with which I won the three selfs in the PFs against no opposition.

One class they have at Doncaster and nowhere else as far as I know, is the floret box for any dianthus.

Apart from the Mystic Mel I didn't take any other varieties except my new ones. I also took 'Bradshaw Beacon', a light red self that can have very good form.

Phil Cross beat me in the seven and the five but neither of us could find enough blooms to do the 12.