Mystery dianthus, ID required

[maggiepie]

Am hoping someone can ID this dianthus for me. It is in its 3rd year but first time it has started to flower.
The plant is very prickly, have to say it fascinates me, I love touching it even when it bites.

[Maggi Young]

If it  really does prickle then it is Dianthus erinaceus and the colour of the flower opening looks right. Yours is doing what I really like about the plant... it is growing in the shape of a hedgehog!

[maggiepie]

Thank you, thank you Maggi!!

It definitely prickles.
How long do these plants last?
Hope it has a few babies, it's a lovely little thing, even without flowers.

[Darren]

Helen,

Duncan Lowe's cushion plants book records a decades-old specimen the size of a pillow in an English garden. Ours is 8 years old and around 40cm diameter. It is still a nice tight cushion but not perfectly hedgehog-shaped as it has moulded itself to the rocks it is growing over.

This species is notorious for often being sparse-flowered in the garden (the specimen mentioned by Duncan Lowe had never produced a flower). Yours is clearly going to be more generous.  We find ours flowers only on the sunniest south-facing parts of the cushion, and I think Lesley once mentioned hers does likewise - except on the north side for her in New Zealand! Ours is having it's best flowering ever - but still mostly on the south side.

You should be able to enjoy it for a long time to come. Even the slugs ignore it here and they normally decimate our Dianthus in the winter.

[maggiepie]

Thanks, Darren, would love to see mine get to the size of a pillow, think it might outlive me by the sounds of it.
Unfortunately, I am directionally dyslexic and have no idea which way is north or south.
It was bad enough in Oz but here everything is back to front. The plant does seem to be getting buds here and there all over.

Here's another mystery dianthus, it's the same age as the other but  flowered last year and is not prickly.

Also a pic of the Dianthus erinaceus flower now it has opened.

[Darren]

Can't help you with the other one Helen, sorry.

Here is our erinaceus this evening, with its tonsure of flowers on top of the south face!

[maggiepie]

Darren, your plant is fabulous.
Hope mine gets that big, might have to widen the garden a bit to accommodate it.

[David Nicholson]

Is there a good book on Dianthus?

[hadacekf]

This is my Dianthus erinaceus, but unfortunately it does not make seeds and the cuttings do not root.