Dianthus

The classic clove-scented carnation, a short-lived evergreen perennial in the pink family grown for centuries for its frilled, spice-fragrant double flowers and tidy mounds of narrow blue-gray foliage. Native to the Mediterranean region, it thrives in full sun and lean, sharply drained, neutral-to-alkaline soil with steady but never soggy moisture, and is hardy in USDA zones 6a-9b. It is the florist's carnation and the parent of countless border and perpetual-flowering strains, prized as much for cutting as for the garden.

Cheddar pink is a low, mat-forming evergreen perennial pink (a Dianthus, not a true carnation) native to calcareous rock ledges and cliff faces across western and central Europe, from the protected population at Cheddar Gorge in England east to Ukraine. Its intensely clove-scented, fringed rose-pink flowers and blue-grey foliage make it one of the finest front-of-border edging plants in a sunny, sharply drained garden. The honest catch is drainage: in any soil that holds winter moisture the crown rots reliably, so it fails in heavy clay or irrigated beds and thrives only where drainage is sharp and the site stays dry underfoot in cold months.

The classic cottage-garden "pink" - an evergreen, mat-forming perennial in the pink family grown for centuries for its intensely clove-scented, fringed (feather-edged) flowers above a low cushion of narrow, grassy, blue-grey foliage. POWO (Kew) gives its native range as the eastern Alps and the mountains of central and southeastern Europe. It thrives in full sun and lean, sharply drained, neutral-to-alkaline soil and is hardy in USDA zones 3a-9b. The parent of the old garden pinks, it earns the RHS Award of Garden Merit and is prized for fragrance, drought tolerance, and tidy sunny edging.

Maiden pink is a low, loosely tufted, mat-forming perennial in the pink family (Caryophyllaceae) grown for the carpet of small (0.6 to 0.8 inches), bright rose-pink - sometimes white - flowers it scatters over fine, dark-green to glaucous, grassy foliage in early-to-mid summer; each bloom is typically marked with a darker eye-ring and toothed (deltoid) petal tips. POWO (Kew) gives its accepted native range as most of Europe east to Siberia - from Britain, Scandinavia, and Spain across to Buryatiya and West Siberia. It is a plant of calcareous grassland, rocky ground, and old mine spoil, and is exceptionally hardy (USDA 3a-9b). Grown as a tough, sun-loving edging and rock-garden pink, it holds the RHS Award of Garden Merit. It is naturalized (introduced) in North America but is not classed among aggressive invasives.

A classic cottage-garden member of the pink family (Caryophyllaceae), native to the European mountains (Pyrenees, Carpathians, Balkans). NC State Extension describes a dense, erect, rounded plant 12 to 24 inches tall and 6 to 12 inches wide, with narrow lance-shaped, grayish- to blue-green leaves and flat, rounded, dense clusters of fragrant, often bicolor flowers in shades from white through intense red and purple in spring. It can be grown as an annual, biennial, or short-lived perennial; this record treats it as the short-lived perennial it is across its USDA zone 3-9 range. Bees and butterflies work the bloom clusters, and the plant is deer and rabbit resistant.