Dianthus Vivid™ Bright Lights

A Southern Living® variety, Dianthus Vivid™ Bright Lights is an herbaceous evergreen perennial offering year-round interest. Continually blooming from spring to first frost in fall, the plant blankets its foliage in masses of frilly and fringed flowers in a vivid shade of pink. Borne on short, sturdy stems, rising above the foliage, the delightfully fragrant flowers attract bees and butterflies to the garden and make excellent additions to fresh floral bouquets.

Dianthus, commonly called carnations or pinks, are loosely tufted, quintessential cottage garden plants with a densely branched, clumping, slow-spreading habit of grassy blue-green leaves. Carnations are extremely versatile plants but are shown to best effect when massed in landscapes or grouped in mixed beds, perennial borders, or containers.

Easy to grow, Dianthus Vivid Bright Lights grows best in a sunny location with organically rich, evenly moist, well-draining, gritty loam, having a neutral to alkaline pH. Although the plant is low maintenance, deadheading spent flowers encourages blooms and trimming back after blooming in summer stimulates growth. Vivid Bright Lights is drought and deer resistant.