Saturday, 15 April 2017

Hardy Border Carnations

Descended directly from the species Dianthus Caryophyllua, border carnations are the only truly hardy carnation for growing in the open garden.



Border carnations have been known to survive winters more extreme than those in Britain.

Understood to have been introduced into England from the continent around four - five centuries ago, the flowers were semi-doubles according to some illustrations.

Successive breeding developed the exhibition blooms we see today, with the closing days of the 19th century being the borders heyday when they were bred almost entirely for showing. The most popular borders at this time being Bizarres, Flakes and Picots.

At this time all the flowers had a white ground. The Flakes had one contrasting colour and the Bizarres had flakes of two contrasting colours alternating upon the pure white ground.

Today border carnations are divided into Selfs, Fancies and Picots.

Selfs are one clear colour, free from any shading or marking. Older articles describe the usual colours as white, scarlet, crimson, yellow, apricot, pink, heliotrope grey, purple and old rose.

The British National Carnation Society today lists the colours of Selfs as pink, salmon, rose, cerise, scarlet, crimson, white, cream, mauve, purple, lavender, yellow, apricot, orange and any other.

Fancies are divided into white group fancies, yellow ground fancies and any other colour ground fancies.

White and Yellow ground fancies have stripes, flakes or ticks of a contrasting colour or colours. The stripes are usually of crimson, scarlet, pink or violet. Sometimes the contrasting colours are shading or flushing which is more prevalent with the apricot and yellow varieties.

Fancies of a ground colour other than white or yellow usually have contrasting stripes, flakes or ticks of scarlet, crimson, pink or purple, on a ground of heliotrope-grey, pale pink or light purple.

Picotees are clear white or yellow and marked on the edge of the petal only with a narrow margin of a contrasting colour.

The current list (2017) of Border Carnation classifications published by the British National Carnation Society are:

Self - Pink, Salmon, Rose, Cerise

Bookham Peach

Chesswood Laura Chow

Spinfield Christine Anne

Eileen Neal
Chesswood Margaret Alison
Mary Conlon
Mystic Sunset
Pink Nuffield
Spinfield Party Dress
Welton Pink

Self - Scarlet, Crimson 


Alfriston

Braeside Crimson

Countess of Lonsdale

Crimson Comet
Flanders
Grace's Scarlet Clove
Kathleen Hitchcock
Moor Simply Red
Richard Pollackl
Royal Mail
Scarlet Fragrance
Show time
Spinfield Crimson
Spinfield Leslie's Scarlet
Welton Red


Self - White, Cream


Bofield Antonietta

Bookham Spice

Edenside White

Eudoxia
John Thurstan
Nichola Ann
Spinfield Snowflake
Urpeth Diane Hammerton
Welton White
White Champagne
Whitesmith

Self - Any Other Ground 


Belle of Bookham

Elizabeth Ruby

Grey Dove

Maise Neal
Spinfield Grey


Self - Mauve, Purple, Lavender


Mystic Mel

Pennine Purple

Vintage Special

Billie Boy


Self - Yellow, Apricot, Orange


Chesswood Lidgett Yellow

Clunie

Golden Cross

Lemon Dip
Lustre
Pennine Reflection
Robert Douglas
Sunray

White Ground Fancy


Alfred Galbally

Alice Forbes Improved

Annie Conlon

Carnival
Chesswood Dorothy Cottam
Chesswood Phil Dalby
Chesswood Sairah Nisa
Chesswood Wycoller
Egret
Elizabeth Nelson
Emjay
Forest Princess
Graham's Fancy
Harkell Special
Irene Della Torre
Isobel Kennedy
Jean Knight
Jill Ann
Kinnaird
Margaret Stewart
Urpeth Carol Anne
Robert Smith
Merlin Clove
Rudheath Ruby

Yellow Ground Fancy


Andrew Morton

Baron Mystic

Grangeburn

John Wood
Ken Stubbs
Mystic Dawn
Peter Gould
Show Girl
Spinfield Joy
Yellow Alice Forbes

Any Other Ground Fancy


A. A. Saunders

Avis

Bofield Claire

Border Raider
Braeside Boy
Butterfly
Fireglow
Forest Glow
Forest Sprite
Kathleen Sharp
Leslie Rennison
Lord Nuffield
Mike Briggs
Peter Wood
Sandra Neal


White Ground Picotee


Ann S Moore

Chesswood Barbara Arif

Eva Humphries

Lucy Hogg
Mary Robertson
Moor Maurice Richardson
Natalie Saunders
Pennine Charisma
Pennine Dazzler
Pennine Una
Rudheath Pixie
Eileen Galbally


Yellow Ground Picotee


Bens Croft

Bofield Emily

Hannah Louise

Pennine Dancer
Pennine Legend
Pennine Treasure


Any Other Ground Picotee


Jane Coffey

Margaret Bingham

Pennine Alazar


Heavily Scented

Graces Scarlet Clove

Merlin Clove

Bookhan Spice

Caroline Clove
Ailsa Clove
Leslie Rennison
Vintage Special



www.britishnationalcarnationsociety.co.uk

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