Chinese Pink

Chinese Pink (Garden Or Border Pinks Sinensis) - This has given rise to a race of beautiful garden flowers. It is annual, or biennial, according to the way it is sown and grown. It sown early the plants will flower the first year; is late, the second. On dry soils, and if the winters be mild, they will live for two or three years. The varieties, both single and double, are now very numerous and beautiful, and may be classed under D. Heddewigi, the Japanese variety, are dwarf and handsome, while there are double-flowered forms, particularly diadematus, the flowers of which are large and very double. The petals of the laciniated section are very deeply cut into a fine fringe. Of this class there are also double-flowered forms. The colors of both are much varied, and there are striped crimson and white sorts. Two beautiful and distinct selected sorts, Crimson Belle and Eastern Queen, are among the best varieties. Sow D. sinensis under glass in February, with very little or no bottom-heat; give air freely during open weather, and in April plant out in well-cultivated soil, which need not be rich. Place the plants 9 to 12 inches apart each way, and they will form compact tufts. Encourage the laterals by pinching off decayed flowers, and the result will be a mass of blossom throughout the summer, and probably till November. These Pinks are admirable for the flower garden, either in beds by themselves or mixed; they may be well used with taller plants of a different character dotted sparsely among them.