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The Story of the Carnation

By JOHN GALBALLY, Hailsham.

Eileen Galbally recently drew my attention to the following article written by her late husband for Amateur Gardening and reproduced in the 1960 BNCS Yearbook. It is well worth reading again!

In Britain we grow three such different kinds of Carnations that they are better referred to separately, although they are closely related. When an American speaks of the Carnation he refers to the commercial cut flower. Even in this country the shop Carnation is sometimes called the American Tree Carnation, its original name. We now use the term Perpetual-flowering Carnation, although there have been attempts to popularise this type with British gardeners by dubbing it “The Carnation,” after the American style. But the Perpetual-flowering Carnation is no garden plant; it is not hardy. Carnations are grown in the open garden in these islands—indeed have been for four centuries—but they are not the American kind one buys in the florist’s shop.
The original garden Carnations, which we call Border Carnations, were imported into this country from the Continent. Writers given to sentimentality repeatedly refer to the ancient history of the Carnation, how it was used by the early Romans, choosing to ignore the fact that the old chronicles are considered to refer to some other plant. Chaucer’s ‘’ Clove Gilofre ” is considered to be Caryophyllus aromaticus, the tree from which is obtained cloves for spicing, and oil of cloves.
The Border Carnations originated from Dianthus caryophyllus, a simple wild plant which inhabited various parts of southern Europe. It is believed to have been collected originally from the Pyrenees, bearing single flowers of magenta-pink.
John Gerard, at the close of the sixteenth century, wrote in his herbal that it was he who introduced the Carnation into this country, importing it from Poland. It is wonderful to consider that this insignificant flower has been improved purely by selection of seedlings, and without introduction of any other species.
Early in the seventeenth century John Parkinson attempted a rough classification of the numerous English-raised varieties ; the largest were the Carnations, the smaller and more ordinary the Gilliflowers. and those with yellow-ground flowers the Orange Tawnies, In the later half of the seventeenth century John Rea wrote of variously marked flowers, the red and white, scarlet and white, and the purple and white, and that these were flaked, marbled or powdered.
At the beginning of the eighteenth century there came Painted Ladies, Piquettes, Flakes and Bizarres. The flowers of the Painted Ladies were roughed with red, while the backs of the petals were all white. Although not of good form, they were blessed with a clove scent. The Pic-uetles, or Picotees as we now know them, were pure white or yellow with a distinct band of contrasting colour all round the edges of the petals. The Flakes and Bizarres were of pure white ground with flakes of contrasting colour disposed longitudinally. The Flakes had one contrasting colour and the Bizarres two.

The nineteenth century saw a great surge of popularity for the Car¬nation. The flower was used all over the land by enthusiastic artisans for flower shows. By the middle of the century a small band of devoted carnationists had founded the National Carnation and Picotee Society, whose first exhibition was held at the Royal Nursery, in Slough, establishment of founder-member Charles Turner. Standards of perfection were laid down for growers and judges, while raisers of new varieties saw before them splendid ideals to test their infinite patience. Three types only were con¬sidered fit for showing—Flakes, Bizarres and Picotees—and all these were of pure white ground colour ; flowers of other colours were considered fit for garden display only. Stamina and constitution meant nothing to the enthusiast ; size, form, contour and colouring were all that mattered. And so the Border Carnation became weakened in vigour, which consequently damaged its reputation as a hardy plant.
The close of the nineteenth century saw a decline in interest in English-raised Border Carnations, and breeders turned once again to the Continent for vigorous strains to re-introduce stamina to their depleted stocks. The Picotees, Flakes and Bizarres were left to slip into near-oblivion, and the once-spurned Selfs and Fancies came into their own at last. The old-fashioned methods of staging for exhibition were swept away, the blooms being shown in vases, and stem and calyx became as important features as form and contour. Outdoor trials were begun, but some far-seeing officials of the National Carnation and Picotee Society clamoured that these were meaningless unless planted in the Autumn to stand the Winter in the open field. By the gracious assistance of the Royal Horticultural Society Autumn-planted outdoor trials have been a feature of the Wisley Gardens for twenty years.
Has the Border Carnation regained its position as a hardy plant? Our Canadian friends win prizes with plants that have withstood the severity of their Winter; those of us who fail to grow them in English gardens can scarcely question the hardiness of the present-day Border Carnation.
A more common form of garden Carnation is that popularly known as the Chabaud Carnation. The plants are raised from seed and the results depend entirely upon the amount of care expended on selecting desirable strains.
This Carnation, sometimes called the Marguerite Carnation or Annual Carnation, is descended from Dianthus chinensis, the Indian Pink, also called Rainbow Pink, which, although a biennial plant, exhausts itself by its continuous flowering, and is not sufficiently hardy to stand against our cold, damp Winters. The Marguerite Carnation was evolved by hybridization, probably the cross-fertilisation of the Indian Pink and the perennial Border Carnation. The flower and habit of growth are more those of the Carnation than the Pink.

The Perpetual-flowering Carnation originated with what was known as the Remontant Carnation. Remontant means remounting, and is applied to plants which bloom more than once in a year. M. Dalmais was considered to have raised the original perpetual-flowering Carnation at Lyons about the middle of the nineteenth century, although the first Remontant type, known as the Mayonnais Carnation, was in cultivation at Ollioules in France a hundred years earlier.

Although this plant is believed to have been derived from the same sources as the Marguerite Carnation, only the influence of some other species could have accounted for its greater height and branching habit of growth. It became known as the Tree Carnation, possibly because of its hybridization with Dianthus arboreus, a bushy, branching plant some three feet or more in height, which flowers in the Autumn.
A Frenchman who lived in America, Charles Marc, imported Remontant varieties from France into America in 1852, and further varieties raised from these became known as American Tree Carnations. A few years later plants imported into England from France were named British Tree Carnations. In 1865 Alphonse Alegateire, of Lyons, raised a fine new variety named A. Alegatiere, a free-flowering scarlet self of more reasonable height, which became a popular cut-flower on English markets. As a parent plant it produced seedlings of white and pink selfs, and was the forerunner of a great number of new varieties.
While varieties of American raising improved but slowly, for the flower was still a ragged thing, British raisers were trying to improve the bloom by crossing with Border Carnations. Some condemned this as a mistake, a step back, believing it would affect the long-flowering habit. But it proved to be the one link required to complete the chain, for not until American breeders used British varieties that were admittedly half Border Carnations was real success achieved.

So it was that Dianthus caryophyllus played its part in improving the Perpetual-flowering Carnation, as it had improved other Dianthus hybrids, but adding strength to stem, calyx and constitution, and size and quality to the bloom itself. The glaucous foliage also came of Dianthus caryophyllus influence.
About the end of the nineteenth century three American-raised varieties took this country by storm—Mrs. T. W. Lawson, a cerise self, and Enchantress a flesh-pink seedling from it, both raised by Peter Fisher ; and Laddie, a large pink self raised by Fred Dorner. Enchantress later provided a number of sports.

English growers quickly realised the great possibilities of the Perpetual-flowering Carnation as a market flower, and the beginning of the present century saw many acres of glasshouses specially erected for this crop. But the plant was not easy to grow until the pioneer growers, W. H. Page of Hampton and A. F. Dutton of Iver, began planting out in raised beds in lofty greenhouses. Some varieties became too well known in the markets —names like Puritan, Ashington Pink, Maytime, Topsy and Chief Kokomo— and the markets, ever conservative, were cautious about risking new varieties. Disease and debility took their toll and proved that the market Carnation is not long-lived.

Fortunately, a new scarlet self, an American introduction of recent years, became the answer to the growers’ problem. William Sim established itself as a phenomenal market variety, and its great number of sports in all colours dominate the market stands all over the world. The flowers are fine, and stem and calyx ideal, but specially important to growers are the health and vitality of the plant itself.
But the lessons of the past must not be ignored; new introductions of British raisers should be given fair trial, for it is history that when a variety collapses, its sports often fade with it, and it is a strange fact that when a plant fails in one place it fails in many other places in the world at almost the same time.

Reprint by Permission of The Editor “AMATEUR GARDENING”