Shocking pinks

For a choice selection of pinks, Tilly Ware recommends the Cornish nursery Calamazag

- Tilly Ware

THEOPHRASTUS, the Greek scholar and botanist who lived in the 4th century BC, is believed to have given the name Dianthus to the plants we call pinks: dios meaning of Zeus and anthos, a flower. Dianthus have a sumptuous artistic pedigree, appearing everywhere from Renaissance paintings to Flemish tapestries and exquisite Elizabethan embroidery. They were known as gillyflowers, or sops-in-wine, referring to the Tudor habit of spicing wine with the petals. By the 17th century, 350 types of carnation could be named, captured in still life by Dutch Masters. The colliers of Northumberland were great growers of pinks, as were the weavers of Paisley, Renfrewshire, who kept up to 80 different ones in cultivation. Dianthus are generally native to the limestone regions of Southern Europe, some species naturalising in areas further north, such as our native Cheddar pink, D. gratianopolitanus.

Pick of the bunch

Dianthus ‘Mrs Sinkins’ An old-garden Victorian cultivar with an exceptional scent, holding shaggy, fully double white flowers on stiff stems during midsummer. The clove perfume is far more potent than the longer-flowering new hybrids. Bred by the master of a workhouse in Slough and named after his wife, this is an archetypal romantic plant