How to Grow Carnations

If you love the look and smell of fresh carnations, you should try growing a collection of them in your garden. With only some minor preparation of the flowerbed and minimal care throughout the year, you'll have beautiful carnations for your spring and summer bouquets.

Things You'll Need

• Rake, shovel and tools to prepare the planting area
• Spade
• Carnation seedlings or starts
• Sunny location for planting
• Wood ash
• Plant fertilizer

Instructions

1. Decide where you want to grow the carnations. A sunny, well drained site is of utmost importance. Heavily shaded areas with poor drainage is usually fatal to the plant. Make certain the soil doesn't have too much acid as carnations like a slightly alkaline soil.

2. Prepare the site in late summer. Wood ash or lime mixed in the soil will give the slight alkalinity that carnations crave. Wood ash also provides potassium and is better to use, if available. Scatter 4 handfuls per square yard to the area. Add fertilizer to the soil.

3. Set out new stock in the early fall or mid fall to allow the rooting system to develop for faster growth in the spring.

4. Plant border carnations between 9 and 15 inches apart. The wider the distance, the stronger the growth.

5. Bury the carnations covering no more than 1/4 of the stem. Pack the soil down firmly.

6. Water the plants well during dry weather.

7. Stake the carnations as they grow to prevent being knocked down during a rain or wind storm.

Tips & Warnings

• You can grow the border carnations from seed if you start the seed indoors in the mid-spring or mid-summer. Start them in a cool window or cold frame.

• When the border carnations grow, they will have one large main bud. The side shoots will have buds; when they're the size of a pea, pinch some of them off to give more energy to the main bud.

• Carnations can also be propagated by layering and cuttings.