Dianthus/carnations balling in the rain

Eustace

My carnation flowers, especially white and pink, are turning brown and balling in this wet weather. Are there any variants that are resistant to this? Or do you grow them under a shelter away from the rain?

Also how do you deadhead these flowers? Only the flowers or do you remove a length of stem too? TIA for your advice.

Pete.8

The single-flowered varieties aren't affected by the rain.
I grow Mrs Sinkins which is a double and if it rains when it's in flower it just turns to an ugly brown mush.
As there are a lot of flower stems, I just use scissors and cut the lot back to foliage height - for both the single and double varieties.
Mrs Sinkins doesn't re-flower, but I also have Pink Kisses (single flowers) which I cut back about 2 wees ago after the 1st flush and new flower buds are appearing

Eustace

Thanks for your advice @Pete.8. Yes, it is the double ones which are the worst culprits. I, however, did notice that the Sweet Williams which also belong to the same family, are less prone to turning into a brown mush, probably strength in numbers.

Fairygirl

They do often go over more quickly in wetter weather, but they just produce lots more buds when you deadhead anyway, so it isn't a huge problem. Rain really isn't a problem unless they're planted in unsuitable ground conditions, and get wet at the roots. I have to be sure here that they have sharp drainage, so mine are either in pots, or in raised beds or the gravel paths. 

When deadheading, you just need to look at the habit - some have a single flower bud on a stem, and some are multi headed, so you need to snip more carefully if you want to remove spent heads on those.