Forum home Talkback
This Forum will close on Wednesday 27 March, 2024. Please refer to the announcement on the Discussions page for further detail.

Talkback: Dianthus: In the pink

You are correct. Pinking shears were invented in the 14th century (pinken is a German word meaning to peck). The colour pink comes from the flower rather than the other way round.

Posts

  • I have a sink on the front patio by my bench. It is filled with a small dianthus that is white with a maroon ring near the middle. I do not know its name but the smell on a late Spring evening is beautiful.
  • At the weekend I got a lovely healthy large pot full of alpine pinks for 75p I'm going to plant them in some pebbles with some small grasses and small lavanders I'm going to look round for more alpine ones they are great value for money and really pretty.
  • Is it as easy as it sounds to take cuttings from dianthus? I love them (even if they're grandmotherly!) and would like to propagate some of the beautiful ones in the garden this year.
  • There are boxes of White miniature dianthus going cheap in our local DIY store - in surprisingly good condition! Would it be worth my while planting them now in some winter baskets or containers? If not - what's the best way to ensure they survive until they can be used for bedding out in the spring?
  • Lovely to hear about your pinks but wonder if you could help my dilemma. Do you know an appropriate mortar mix to cover an outdoor sink to make an alpine bed?
  • I heard somewhere - quite possibly on Gardeners World! - that pinks are not named for the colour, but for the frilly appearance of their petals, which look as if they've been cut out by pinking shears.
  • fiona_ukfiona_uk Posts: 1
    james well done on your pink thing my Mrs Sinkins is a delight i love the clove scent ...and i have pinks all over the garden ...Granny indeed !!!
  • cloud8cloud8 Posts: 103

    before we started to use 'pink' as a colour as well as a 'pinked' shape we used to call pink coloured things 'rose' like the french word for 'pink'.  Not sure what the anglo saxons called it though.  Same with 'blue' for purple which we gardeners still use today as in "lavender's blue dilly dilly' which it clearly isn't, and anglo saxons would also have said 'violet' after the name of the flower not having a word for it.  All this makes me think it must have been difficult describing colours if you were an anglo saxon.

Sign In or Register to comment.