In The Pink

Square In September starts on September 1, (2018) and is a square photo challenge issued by Becky over at The Life of B.

In her own words, Becky asks us to:

“. . . have a little fun with the phrases ‘in the pink’ and ‘tickled pink’.”

The only thing you must ensure is that your main photograph is a square.

– ⋅ o ♥ o ⋅ –

I’ve decided I’ll showcase the pink I find in my garden.

Walking around yesterday – not that that was an overly long journey in my little patch of garden – I was surprised at all the pink I found.  You’ll just have to imagine how ‘Tickled Pink’ I am over that.

Considering the first day of September also coincided with the first day of Spring, I imagine there will be many more delights to behold throughout the month.  Here’s the first – Dianthus – the perfect place to start because these five-petaled flowers are, in almost all species, pale to dark pink.

This gorgeous little flower comes in a wide variety from hardy annuals to biennials and even perennials.  They belong to family Caryophyllaceae which is more commonly referred to as the pink family or carnation family. That surprises me because I find it hard to associate these little flowers that barely reach above my ankle with their much taller cousin, yet apparently, they range in height from 7.6 cm all the way up to 45.7 cm (3 to 18 inches).

Dianthus is the perfect flower for the frill seeker and one of its common names, ‘pinks’ comes from the tattered edges of the petals which look like they’ve been cut with pinking shears.  So they aren’t called pinks because of their colour, however – surprise, surprise – back in 1733, they were the origin for the name of the colour pink*.  Wow!

Dianthus are also known as ‘Pinks’ and are the origin of the name for the colour pink.

These days you can get them in a diverse range of colours including white, red and mauve and some even boast two-coloured petals.  Most varieties, particularly the perennial pinks, are noted for their strong spicy, clove-like fragrance that also has a hint of cinnamon.

I think they smell delicious and understand why they are also now as Sweet William.  (Though technically, Sweet William is a species of Dianthus – Dianthus barbatus.)

It is the smaller varieties that are most often used in borders or potted displays and that’s what I tried to do with them.  I tried so hard to grow them in pots but without much success.  However, when it came time to say “Oh well, I can’t grow them!”, I didn’t throw them out.  Instead, I took them out of the pots and planted what was left of them – pathetic looking little clumps – in a bare patch of the garden bed along the back fence.

They haven’t looked back, and now I know why.  Thanks to my research for writing this post, I now know that Dianthus need at least 6 hours of sunlight each day and I was depriving them of that.  In the back garden bed, they get to drink in the Sun’s life-giving goodness all day and so far have rewarded me with non-stop blooms for more than a year.  I’m hoping I’ll get more enjoyment out of them because so far I haven’t been deadheading them and this means those flowers may have gone to seed, and thus sprouting new plants (perhaps).  Deadheading though does encourage more blooms, so I guess I’ll be removing all the dead flowers when I water the garden this afternoon.

Yesterday, during a ‘quick’ visit to Bunnings – my favourite store – I picked up a few punnets to plant out the front, sprucing up a tired patch of the garden and, hopefully over the coming months, add a pop of colour where none previously existed.

I love the new varieties I’ve planted in my front garden.

Though they are still recovering from being planted, already they are looking wonderful and I am eagerly anticipating how bright and colourful that patch of the garden will be in the very near future.

One website I visited said they need approx. 30 cm (11 inches) of space.  Not sure I’ve given them that much, but I’m sure I will be able to break them up and plant them elsewhere if need be.  I think I’m getting way ahead of myself though.  As you can see from the photos below, they are only very small and need to do a lot of growing before any breaking up can be considered.

I love these colours I chose, and think they will make a gorgeous carpet of colour.

But I’ve also put one back in a hanging basket.  I’ll see how it goes and whether or not it gets enough sunlight to flourish.

– ⋅ o ♥ o ⋅ –

When I took the photos of my camera, I was delighted with this next photo.  I think I am such an accidental photographer at times, particularly considering just how small these flowers are.

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You can read more about growing Dianthus at Gardening Know How: How To Grow Dianthus

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