Common name: Fancy "Carnations" or Standard "Carnation"
Latin name: Dianthus caryophyllus 

Variety note: Fancy or Standard Carnations belong to a very large family of plants called Dianthus. In Latin this translates to... dios meaning "divine" and anthos meaning "flower". During the spring your local Garden Center has many varieties of annual and perennial Dianthus for the home garden.

These days Carnations are not used by florists like they once were. With the advent of modern growing techniques there has been an explosion of new cut flower varieties that seem to have pushed the old Carnation aside. This is really a shame because there are literally dozens of new hybrid Carnations that are absolutely beautiful flowers. In a vase arrangement most Carnations will last twice as along as nearly any cut flower providing the consumer with an "Excellent Value". Depending on room temperature a vase life of 14 days or more is not unheard of.

Colorado was once know as the "Carnation Capitol" of the world. The energy crisis of the 80's doubled the price of natural gas forcing most of the Carnation growers to produce other crops which yielded a higher profit margin. The second energy crisis of the late 90's caused any remaining Carnation growers to go out of business. In the 2000's there is only one Colorado Carnation grower still in business. Today most Carnations are imported from temperate regions like South America. Carnations are sold in straight or mixed color bunches of 25 stems. 

Add a commercial floral preservative such as AquaPlus or FloraLife to the vase that contains your Carnations with each water change. Floral preservative helps to prevent bacteria growth and feeds your flowers insuring a longer vase life. To make your own cut flower food mix 1/2 teaspoon of table sugar to a quart of cold water... mixing thoroughly.