Carnations

Common Name: Border Carnations, Annual Carnations, Perpetual- flowering Carnations, Dianthus

Kingdom: Plantae

Division: Magnoliophyta

Class: Magnoliopsida

Order: Caryophyllales

Family: Caryophyllaceae

Genus: Dianthus

Carnations also known as Dianthus, a name given to the flower by Theophrastus, greek botanist, is a very popular flower that comes in a wide variety of colors. Dianthus is a combination of two separate greek words, “dios” that refers to greek god Zeus, and “anthos” that means flower. Each color of Carnation depicts a specific meaning like fascination, admiration, love etc.

Carnation plant can grow upto 6-8 cm in diameter if grown in a garden. The flowers of these species can have 5 petals to as many as 40 petals. These are found as single flowers or double flowers. There are basically three types of carnations:

1. Large flowered carnations
2. Dwarf Flower carnations
3. Mini Carnations or Spray Carnations
   
   

These flowers can grow as single large flowers or in a bunch of smaller flowers.. The petals of these flowers are mostly serrated or clawed. The flowers have a straight stem which also makes it a favorite of the florists.

The leaves of the Carnation plant are narrow and they stalk less. The color of these leaves can vary from green to purple or grey-blue.

How to grow:

A carnation can be grown by three different ways, by the seeds, by division and by cuttings. They need a lot of sunlight, properly moist soil that is high in organic content.

1. Growing by seed:
• Keep the seeds for germination in not too moist soil
• Place these seeds at a distance of 10-12 inches from each other
• Water it occasionally to keep the soil moist but do not overwater
2. Growing by division:
• Dig out an old carnation plant
• Divide this carnation roots carefully with hands
• Plant each division cautiously
• Water it regularly and keep it in proper sunlight
3. Growing by cutting:
• Take the stems from a healthy carnation plant. The stem should have two to three leaf nodes.
• Cut this stem directly below the leaf node and remove the leaves from the lower half.
• Plant this stem in a pot with soil with sufficient organic content.
• Place this pot in indirect sunlight and use trowel regularly to till the soil to provide air to the roots.

Carnations have a number of cultivars that are ideal to be planted in the gardens. Columbia is known to be the biggest producer of carnations in the world.

Propagation:

As already discussed, carnations can be cultivated using seeds, cuttings or by divisions.

Uses:

This is a very popular flower when it comes to the flower arrangements at several occasions. This is also a very famous gift flower with carnations having a lot of meanings associated to their colors.

Apart from this, the flower has medicinal value as well. This was used for treating fever in the Europe. Apart from that, this is also used for spicing up ale and wine.

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