Too common and sold in cellophane by the bucketload outside petrol stations and supermarkets, the carnation is the last-resort flower. But forget stiff, frilly pompoms for funerals and cheap filling ...

Pink is an easy colour to use in perennial borders and rock gardens and the genus Dianthus provides for plenty of pinks. Flowers may be single, semi-double or double; single forms have five petals.

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