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I love Dianthus and have a few growing in my flower beds. I got to looking them up on the internet yesterday and learned that they are a short lived perennial but a person can keep them going by taking cuttings/starts off of them and start new plants. Well the problem is I couldn't find anything that says how a person goes about this. Where do you take the cuttings/starts from? How do you start the cuttings/starts?
Has anyone started new plants from cuttings/starts that can give me some advice on how to keep new plants going? One of my favorites didn't come back after this past winter because I'm sure it reached it's maximum lifespan and I will replace it with hopefully another one. But I would like to be able to replace them with cuttings/starts instead of having to constantly buy them from a nursery every 3-4 years.
We love the plant as well. Hubby found one a couple weeks ago that was red with whit spots in center of red. I never saw one like that, just the usual red, violet & pink. Not variegated anyway.
I never heard of taking cuttings, either. let us know what you find out.
I will ask the nursery by us next time I go there & see what they say.
I honestly don't know the proper way to do it, but I transplanted some dianthus into the ground from a pot in which they were overgrowing. By accident, a portion of the plants got torn away from the roots, but I just buried the 'branches' into the ground, watered the heck out of them, and although some bits succumbed, most didn't and I now have blooms. My dianthus had been living in a pot for two years and were thriving very well, so much so that they were choking with lack of space. After the initial shock, they seem to like their new 'home' in the ground and are beginning to fill out and spread.
By the way, mine are the pink/red/white variegated type.
Mine come back every year and bloom spring through fall. If it's bushy and healthy looking you can dig it out roots and all and separate it by pulling sections apart. Plant them about 15" apart. Don't mulch them, they like air and low humidity.
When a planrt can be grown from cuttings, cut a branch off just below where the stem has offshoots of leaves. It's called a node. Pull the leaves off from the bottom where you're going to stick it in the dirt. I like to trim a couple branches off so I have at least two of those nodes in the dirt. You can plant those in your garden or use a small pot of dirt and you can sit it on a sunny windowsill. Keep them moist until it starts to grow then normal care.
When you cut a branch or stem off, cut the bottom part off the regular plant you're getting the cutting from so it doesn't look like a bare stick. Cut it off just above where the next branch or leaves start.
Mine come back every year and bloom spring through fall. If it's bushy and healthy looking you can dig it out roots and all and separate it by pulling sections apart. Plant them about 15" apart. Don't mulch them, they like air and low humidity.
When a planrt can be grown from cuttings, cut a branch off just below where the stem has offshoots of leaves. It's called a node. Pull the leaves off from the bottom where you're going to stick it in the dirt. I like to trim a couple branches off so I have at least two of those nodes in the dirt. You can plant those in your garden or use a small pot of dirt and you can sit it on a sunny windowsill. Keep them moist until it starts to grow then normal care.
When you cut a branch or stem off, cut the bottom part off the regular plant you're getting the cutting from so it doesn't look like a bare stick. Cut it off just above where the next branch or leaves start.
You will need to pinch/cut off the spent blooms, so it will rebloom.
With mine, I get better blooming and more blooms when I deadhead, but I've found that dianthus is one of those plants suitable for brown-thumbs like me and does well with its blooming even when ignored.
Not all Dianthus are short-lived perennials. Some will live for 10 years without you ever touching them (D. plumarius for example). and some will die off the first year unless you deadhead ruthlessly (D. superbus, alas). But to make more for next year, simply divide the plants down the middle of the root ball. Any shoot with a little root on it should survive handily.
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Very interesting...
