Pink

PINK (pingk) is the general name of a huge group of flowering plants recognized to botanists as Dianthus. Many Dianthus flowers are pink, but the name pink is used to explain the scalloped or "pinked" edges of the flower petals. Pinks are typically natives of Europe and Asia, where many kinds have been refined in gardens for centuries.Plants of the pink family have stems with distended joints and leaves rising in pairs on opposite sides of the stems. Flowers of cultivated pinks are white, pink, red, sometimes yellow, and often with stripes. They may be single or double, unaccompanied, or in clusters. Many are sweet-scented.

Cultivated pinks comprise the carnation, grown more in English, gardens than in the United States. Other garden pinks are: fragrant cottage, or grass pinks; small-flowered, mat-forming maiden pinks; sweet-scented clove pinks; fragrant Cheddar pinks, with blue-gray foliage; scentless China pinks, frequently grown as annuals; and bunch pinks, such as sweet William, with intimately clustered flowers.

Pinks are simple to grow in ordinary garden soil. They like sunshine, but do best in moderate and cool climates. Some are annuals, but most are biennials or perennials.
Pinks are grown from seed or cuttings. Some, sweet William, for example, often self-sow and produce year after year in old gardens, or even escape to roadsides and waste places.