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Maiden pink

Leonhard Lenz / Wikimedia Commons - CC BY-SA 4.0

Maiden pink

Dianthus deltoides

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.

Climate fit: moderate (56/100)

Border

Pollinator

Filler

Light

Full sun

Water

Low water

Mature size

6-18" tall · 12" apart

Hardy in zones

3a-9b

brutally cold to frosty winters

Native in Illinois

No

Related products

Cold hardiness

These values are location-based: this location's current hardiness is the baseline, and the 2050 value is a projected future climate for this same location.

Now

Zone 6b

Plotwright

USDA Zone 6b

-5°F to 0°F

Well-suited

2050

2100

Zone 7a

Plotwright

0°F to 5°F

Well-suited

In plain terms: This location has cold winters. Its winters are projected to keep warming through 2050.

✓

Well-suited today and still thriving in 2050.

Heat tolerance

Heat tolerance values are location-based too: heat days today are observed at this site, and the 2050 value projects this same location under a future climate.

Loading AHS heat-zone data for this location...

Where this plant fits

Suitable across 45 ecoregions - 41 climate-resilient through 2070 · 1 suited today · 3 newly possible by 2070. Best matches first.

Appalachian mixed mesophytic forests

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Appalachian-Blue Ridge forests

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Arizona Mountains forests

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Atlantic coastal pine barrens

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Blue Mountains forests

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Central Pacific Northwest coastal forests

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Central Tallgrass prairie

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Central-Southern Cascades Forests

What it needs

Conditions

Light

Full sun

Water

Low water

Spacing

12"

Habit

Low, loosely tufted, mat-forming perennial making a carpet of fine, grassy, green-to-glaucous foliage that throws up slender flowering stems to about 6 to 18 inches in early-to-mid summer, each topped by small (0.6 to 0.8 inches) bright rose-pink - occasionally white - flowers with toothed petal tips and usually a darker eye-ring. It wants full sun and lean, sharply drained, neutral-to-alkaline soil and resents wet, heavy, or acidic ground. The flowers are nectar-rich for pollinators; the plant is not grown for eating and has no significant toxicity to people.

Care tips

•

Make sharp drainage and a neutral-to-alkaline, lean soil your first priority; sweeten acid ground with a little lime and never let the crown sit wet, especially over winter.

•

Give it the most open, sunniest, best-drained spot - a rock garden, gravel garden, raised bed, or wall top - and water sparingly once established.

•

Shear the mat lightly after the early-summer flush to keep it tidy, encourage a rebloom, and slow any woody opening at the centre.

Lifecycle

Planting

Plant in spring in full sun in lean, gritty, sharply drained soil that runs neutral to alkaline; rock gardens, gravel gardens, raised beds, sunny banks, and wall tops suit it. Avoid wet, heavy, or acidic ground, the usual cause of failure - set the crown at the soil surface, never buried, and space about 12 inches apart so air moves freely around the foliage.

Transplanting

Move young, well-rooted plants in spring while establishing; pinks resent disturbance once settled, so shift established mats only in early spring if you must, lifting a generous root ball. Self-sown seedlings transplant readily when small.

Early growth

Water sparingly to establish - maiden pink is drought-tolerant once rooted and rots if kept wet. Keep mulch off the crown, and shear the mat lightly after the first flush to keep it tidy and encourage a rebloom.

Maturity

Mature plants make mats about 12 to 18 inches wide with flowering stems 6 to 18 inches tall. Bloom peaks in early-to-mid summer; deadheading and shearing prolong it. As a short-lived perennial it typically declines after 2-3 years and is best renewed regularly - it also self-sows where happy.

Propagation

Increase by tip cuttings (pipings) from non-flowering shoots in summer, by layering, or by spring division. The species comes readily from seed and self-sows, so seed-raised colonies renew themselves; named selections are best kept true from cuttings.

Similar plants

Browse lateral options with similar roles, light needs, size, or native-range overlap; these are not filtered for a better climate fit.

Aubrieta deltoidea

Aubrieta

Aubrieta (Aubrieta deltoidea) is a low, mat-forming evergreen perennial in the mustard family (Brassicaceae), native to the rocky hillsides of southeastern Europe - primarily Greece, the Aegean Islands, Crete, and adjacent Mediterranean coasts. It is one of the most reliable spring-flowering ground covers for sunny, well-drained spots: cascading sheets of violet to deep pink four-petalled blooms from March through May, attractive to bees and bee flies. The honest catch is that without a hard cut-back immediately after flowering, plants become woody and bare in the centre within two or three years, collapsing from a tight carpet into a tired, gappy mat.

Geranium macrorrhizum

Bigroot geranium

A vigorous, semi-evergreen, clump- and colony-forming hardy geranium grown as one of the best groundcovers for dry shade under trees and shrubs. Its soft, deeply lobed, strongly aromatic leaves form a dense, weed-smothering carpet, many of them flushing red and bronze in autumn, and above the foliage rise loose clusters of magenta-pink (or white) flowers with prominent protruding stamens in late spring and early summer. It spreads steadily by thick surface rhizomes into a tough, low-maintenance, weed-proof mat that is easy to pull back and is not aggressively invasive. The aromatic foliage makes it markedly deer- and rabbit-resistant, and it is genuinely drought-tolerant once established. It is grown purely as an ornamental and is not a food plant.

Perennial

Full sun / Part shade

Felicia amelloides is an evergreen, woody-based perennial subshrub native to a narrow coastal strip of South Africa's Western and Eastern Cape, where it colonises stabilising sand dunes, sandy flats, and rocky outcrops at 0 to 3,280.8 feet. In the garden it delivers a near-continuous flush of sky-blue, yellow-centred daisy flowers on neat mounding growth, typically 12 to 24 inches but capable of reaching about 3.3 feet, making it one of the few true blue-flowered plants for sunny pots and borders. The honest catch is frost-tenderness: it survives only light frost in sharply drained soil and collapses below about 23°F, so outside USDA zones 9-11 it must be overwintered under glass or replaced annually - a real commitment in cool-temperate gardens.

A clump-forming native milkweed with bright orange summer flowers, strong pollinator value, and tolerance for dry sunny sites.

Campanula carpatica is a low, mounding herbaceous perennial native to the rocky subalpine habitats of the Carpathian Mountains, ranging across Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Romania, and Ukraine (Wikipedia). Its wide, upward-facing bell flowers in violet-blue, white, or pink appear from June through August, making it one of the longest-blooming edging perennials available, and it holds an RHS Award of Garden Merit. The honest catch is longevity: it tends to behave as a short-lived perennial, often thinning or declining after a few seasons, so gardeners should plan for regular division or fresh plants from seed to hold the planting.

A tough, aromatic garden hybrid (Nepeta racemosa x N. nepetella) that forms a low, spreading mound of scalloped gray-green leaves topped by raceme-like spikes of two-lipped lavender-blue flowers from late spring into fall. Sterile and clump-forming rather than weedy, it shrugs off heat, drought, and deer, draws bees all season, and is mildly attractive to cats - a workhorse for border fronts, edging, and dry sunny sites.

Perennial

Full sun / Part shade

Educator packet

Plant packet

Maiden pink educator packet

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.

Scientific name

Dianthus deltoides

Plant type

perennial

Hardiness

3a-9b

Light

full-sun

Moisture

low

Spacing

12 inches