Dianthus Cultivation Methods and Care Tips Explained in Detail

1. Highlights

Dianthus is one of China's famous ornamental flowers, with a long history of cultivation, and ancient poets praised it greatly. The two great poets of the Tang Dynasty, Li Bai and Du Fu, both left famous lines praising the dianthus flower for later generations. The Poet Immortal said, "Dianthus embroidered on silk robes." The Poet Sage said, "Musk sleeps among dianthus." This shows that as early as more than 1,200 years ago in the Tang Dynasty, dianthus was already widely cultivated for people to admire. Dianthus is widely distributed in China's Northeast, North China, Northwest, and the provinces of the Yangtze River basin, and is now widely cultivated at home and abroad.

Dianthus resembles bamboo in form, with dense flowers, bright colors, and a texture like velvet. It is an excellent flower and grass, mostly used for arranging flower beds or flower borders, and can also be potted or used as cut flowers, and can also be used in large quantities directly as ground cover plants.

Dianthus flowers can be seen everywhere in courtyards, gardens, flower beds, and flower pots across China, and are a commonly cultivated herbaceous flower. It has a delicate and beautiful appearance, with many flowers and a willingness to bloom, and is deeply loved by people. The dianthus flower has a unique flower shape, with petals that have fringed edges, forming a dianthus-type corolla with its own distinctive characteristics and unique beauty; the flower colors are numerous and dazzling. There are pure white, pink, peach red, goose yellow, light purple, and intermediate colors, a riot of five colors. Dianthus has strong growth vigor and a relatively long flowering period, blooming for 200 days starting from early May, and in a greenhouse it can bloom continuously all year round, cutting the old to report the new, never fading throughout the year. Sikong Shu said of it, "Who pities its fragrance lasting longest, from spring dew to autumn wind." When dianthus flowers open, they give off a well-balanced fragrance, and Du Fu wrote the line "Musk sleeps among dianthus."

Dianthus resembles bamboo in form, with stems about a chi tall, slender and green. When the Song Dynasty poet Lin Bu saw "At the mountain cottage, by the small window, there were dianthus, and the clumps suddenly flourished beautifully," he immediately composed a poem: "After the musk sleeps, the sandalwood dew is even, embroidered on silk robes yet the color is not true. Leaning slantwise on fine clumps as if with regret, coldly swaying on pivoting blossoms as if about to give rise to spring. The red peony before the steps is attributed to poets, the yellow chrysanthemum below the hedge is valued by ancients. Today, holding the brush to evaluate, how admirable that it is truly worthy of freshness and clarity." The first couplet of the poem describes its fragrance and color, while the second couplet portrays its posture and appearance: the fine clustered branches lean slantwise, as if full of feeling, and the sparse bright flowers, with a few gentle sways, make one suddenly feel that spring is born within them, full of vitality. The third and fourth couplets are an evaluation of dianthus: "The red peony before the steps" and "the yellow chrysanthemum below the hedge" are what poets and writers of past dynasties valued, so how then should dianthus be evaluated? The poet gave it the two words "fresh and clear." This eccentric poet, praised as having "plum blossoms as wife and cranes as children," did not easily give flowers "evaluations," but at this moment suddenly saw two clumps of dianthus at the mountain cottage, their beautiful color containing spring, quietly blooming, with sparse flowers and pink branches, fresh and lovely. At this time, although spring light had already passed, the spring color on the dianthus itself was at its richest. The dianthus, full of resentment, won the poet's sympathy, and being judged as "fresh and clear" was entirely deserved.

Dianthus flowers often grow in secluded quiet valleys, and only bloom in late spring, and are generally not valued by people. Beauty without anyone to appreciate it is a matter of regret. Wang Anshi felt this quite strongly and once wrote a poem about it: "If carriages and horses do not come, who will see and appreciate it? Pitiful, yet it also understands how to pass through the spring wind." He said that the dianthus flower does not abandon itself because no carriages and horses come, but still spreads its fragrance over the ground, welcomes the spring wind, and spends a beautiful time, "Not afraid of the southern wind's heat, it can bloom to welcome Minor Heat" (a poem by Gu Du and another). The Tang Dynasty poet Lu Guimeng also gave a relatively high evaluation of the dianthus flower: "But now do not contend with the golden coin flower; the one that buys the spring wind is this flower." The general meaning of the poem is that people often plant golden coin flowers and dianthus flowers in courtyards to decorate fences and enclosures. Their fame can be called great, and the golden coin flower is naturally hard to match. With a relaxed and humorous tone, the poet praised the dianthus flower, and the poetic meaning is unique and vivid, giving people infinite reverie.

In the international flower world, the dianthus flower is a symbol commemorating Mother's Day. On Mother's Day, people whose mothers are still alive wear red flowers, and people whose mothers have passed away wear white flowers. In May 1934, the United States issued a Mother's Day commemorative stamp for the first time, and chose the dianthus flower as its design.

2. Ecological Habits

Dianthus is a perennial herbaceous flower of the genus Dianthus in the family Caryophyllaceae, usually cultivated as a biennial. The plant height is 20-50 cm. The stems are upright, green, slender and weak, and branch from the base in a clustered form. The leaves are simple and opposite, linear-lanceolate, with acuminate tips, and the bases clasp each other around the stem nodes, with hairs on the leaf margins, gray-green, and swollen stem nodes. The flowers are borne at the tips of the branches, solitary or several clustered together, with a dianthus-type corolla, 5 corolla segments, with irregular shallow toothed splits on the edges, in red, pink, white, purple-red, and variegated colors, and fragrant. The capsule is oblong. The seeds are flat and dark brown. The flowering period is April-May, and the fruit ripening period is June.

Dianthus is native to China. It is cold-resistant and drought-resistant. It likes a sunny, dry, ventilated, and cool environment. It likes well-drained, fertile soil containing lime. It avoids moisture and waterlogging. It very easily hybridizes between species.

3. Cultivation Points

(1) Watering

After dianthus is sown, when the seedlings grow to 3-4 cm, divide the seedlings and plant them in the open air for maintenance. After the seedlings recover and survive, water less or not at all to promote root growth, then strengthen water and fertilizer management. The room temperature for dianthus growth during the seedling stage is 10-20°C.

(2) Fertilizing

After dianthus is planted, apply a topdressing once every 3 weeks (it is advisable to use bone meal, sesame oil residue, decomposed cake fertilizer, etc.), and pinch back 2 times to promote more branching. After flowering, cut off the flowering branches and fertilize once every week, and after September it can bloom again.

(3) Light

Throughout the growth period, light should be strengthened, with sunlight reaching about 8 hours per day.

4. Propagation

When the seed shell turns from green to yellow after flowering, it indicates that the seeds have matured. They can be taken out, dried, and stored, or sown at any time.

5. Pest and Disease Control

The main pests and diseases of dianthus include damping-off disease, viral disease, leaf spot disease, rust disease, and red spiders, seed flies, aphids, cutworms, mole crickets, etc., which can be controlled by spraying pesticides and poisoning baits.

6. Questions and Answers

(1) What are the main propagation methods for dianthus?

Dianthus is mainly propagated by sowing, cuttings, and other methods.

① Sowing: This can be done except during the coldest and hottest seasons of the year. Sow the seeds in a pot with sterile soil as the substrate, place it in a warm indoor place, and generally seedlings can be complete in 7 days. After the seedlings are complete, ventilate, expose them to sunlight, and control watering to prevent weakness and leggy growth.

② Cuttings: This is mostly done from October to the following spring in March. Cut mature old branches into cuttings about 6 cm long, insert them into a sand bed or open-air seedling bed, water immediately after insertion and shade from light, and plant in place after rooting.

(1) What are the medicinal value and commonly used prescriptions of dianthus?

Dianthus uses the whole plant with flowers as medicine, and the prescription name is Qu Mai. Its nature and flavor are bitter and cold, and it has the function of promoting diuresis and treating strangury. It is a commonly used medicine for treating strangury. Specific prescriptions include:

① To treat urinary system infection: Qu Mai and Bian Xu 15 grams each, dandelion 30 grams, Huang Bai 10 grams, Ding Xin Cao 3 grams, decoct in water and take.

② To treat reddish and rough urination, heat strangury, and blood strangury: Qu Mai, Bian Xu, Che Qian Zi, Hua Shi, Shan Zhi Zi Ren, Gan Cao (roasted), Mu Tong, and Da Huang in equal parts, make into a powder, take 6 grams each time, add lamp wick, decoct in water and take.

③ To treat fish-navels and poisonous sores and swellings: pound Qu Mai with raw oil until cooked and apply.

④ To treat red and swollen painful eyes: stir-fry Qu Mai until yellow and grind into powder, mix with goose saliva and apply to the eye corners; or pound the juice and apply it.