Dianthus alpinus ‘Joan’s Blood’.

[Lampwick]

Dianthus alpinus ‘Joan’s Blood’.

Why can’t I grow this plant? 
I first bought it when it appeared in Joe Elliott’s Broadwell Nursery catalogue – quite a few years ago!
But I have never got it to look as good as it did the day I bought it.
I have bought it a number of times since then, (although never in flower) but it just clings to life, putting on very little growth.
I know it likes lime – I have grown it in a hole in tufa and in the corner of a trough with crushed tufa at its feet; but it has always been a sad thing in my garden…Why? 

 

[mark smyth]

all alpinus don't like me and Pudsey Prize

[Lesley Cox]

I understood that D. alpinus was one which doesn't like lime. Mine do best in a peaty mixture, or failing peat, fine crushed pine bark with some grit and some loam. They've never had lime. If you get a new plant sometime, take a few cuttings right away and gradually introduce them into your own conditions. That could help. Seed from 'Joan's Blood' comes pretty true both in leaf and flower, if isolated from other forms. It also hybridises with D. deltoides.

[Lampwick]

I understood that D. alpinus was one which doesn't like lime. Mine do best in a peaty mixture, or failing peat, fine crushed pine bark with some grit and some loam. They've never had lime. If you get a new plant sometime, take a few cuttings right away and gradually introduce them into your own conditions. That could help. Seed from 'Joan's Blood' comes pretty true both in leaf and flower, if isolated from other forms. It also hybridises with D. deltoides.

Mark,
Yes, D. ‘Pudsey Prize’ never stays long with me either!  

Lesley,
I have gone with what the gurus have put in print. Roy Elliott in his book ‘Alpine Gardening’, says of D. alpinus – “This Dianthus must have lime in the soil, unlike D. neglectus from the Maritime Alps, which prefers an acid soil.”[/b]Joe Elliott, (no relation to Roy by the way!) says – "A lovely plant for a sunny limestone scree or trough.” You may have a point in what you say though Lesley. My two tiny plants have made very little root in the open gritty soil they are in with a generous top dressing of chippings. Perhaps to gritty; I will incorporate some fine bark so that it has something it can get its toes into.

 

[Lesley Cox]

Mmmm... that's interesting. My general rule with Dianthus is that if they have blue/grey/glaucous foliage they are lime lovers, if they're green, leave it out. Certainly D. alpinus forms don't get lime here and the only alpinus young plants I've lost over the years, have been in limestone troughs with some lime added, for small campanulas and the like. I would normally take the word of Roy Elliott (with whom I corresponded for many years, until his death), as just below that of God. This time we'll agree to disagree. In either case, I'd certainly get some cuttings going early on in the piece.
Maybe it's one of those - read this somewhere - that while lime haters must NOT have lime, lime lovers appreciate it but can live without it. Whatever.

I was married in 1965 and Roy sent me a parcel of plants (those in the wondrous days when such things were possible) as a wedding present. It included among other good things, Corydalis cashmiriana, a little scrap no bigger than my little finger nail. I believe all the plants in NZ originated from that little piece. My mother had it by the square metre at one stage.

[John85]

Yes Lesley
Indeed I grew it in a slightly acid soil(ph 6.5) and it was happy and I had no problems with the campanulas (except for the slugs of course)

[Lesley Cox]

Happily, I have no snails at all and I haven't seen a slug for over a year, in spite of our very wet summer. I feel truly blessed in this respect.

On Saturday the local alpine garden group had an afternoon wookshop (the Forum's Toolie was one of 3 speakers ) and a few members each brought a tray of plants for sale, as we do. Between two trays I saw a well grown snail making its way across the table. I move my tray hastily until someone picked the criminal up and took it outside for execution. It was OK though, only 2 of my 20 plants didn't sell, so they probably wouldn't have made an attractive target for it anyway.