Grow Wild to Know Wild
Maiden Pink (Dianthus deltiodes)

Flowers: June - September
Preferred site: sunny

Description: a charming evergreen perennial forming a mat of green foliage with narrow dark-green leaves. Slender stems to 20cm tall bear a succession of clustered pink to deep rose flowers, each 2cm across.

©Peter Marren/Plantlife

Habitats in the wild: perennial herb of dry, usually base-rich, soils overlying chalk and limestone, mica-schist or basalt; sometimes on metal-rich mining spoil or sandy soils and dunes. It can occur in short, closed grassland, but prefers an open sward broken by bare rock or soil .

Conservation status and threats: Maiden Pink is a native species, but also occurs as a garden escape. Many of its surviving populations are small in size and threatened by overgrazing, undergrazing and scrub encroachment. Its status is considered to be Near Threatened.

Position in garden : An easy and attractive pink for a sunny position on well drained soil at the front of a border or in a rockery.

How to plant and when: plant young, pot grown plants out in spring. Maiden Pink favours relatively poor soils.

Propagation: Best propagated from short cuttings of non-flowering shoots in early - mid summer or from seed sown in spring.

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