Dianthus caryophyllus, carnation or clove pink is probably native to the Mediterranean region but its exact range is unknown due to extensive cultivation for the last 2,000 years.
It is a herbaceous perennial plant growing to 80 cm tall. The leaves are glaucous greyish green to blue-green, slender, up to 15 cm long. The flowers are produced singly or up to five together in a cyme; they are 3–5 cm diameter, and sweetly scented; the original natural flower colour is bright pinkish-purple, but cultivars of other colours, including red, white, yellow and green, have been developed.
It's name 'clove pink' comes from it being grown in Mediaeval times as a substitute for the then very expensive spice 'cloves'. Quite how it was used for that I have yet to discover, but there is a recipe for pickling the flower buds in John Evelyn's 'Acetaria, a Discourse of Sallets' published 1699, which I plan to try when I get enough of a crop!
