Fill your garden with fragrance and romantic color with Dianthus Scent First ‘Romance’, an award-winning perennial prized for its intensely scented, ruffled salmon-pink blooms and compact evergreen foliage. This charming carnation variety produces masses of double flowers with rich carmine-red centers from spring through fall.

Perfect for sunny borders, rock gardens, containers, and pollinator spaces, this long-blooming perennial adds classic cottage garden beauty while remaining low maintenance and deer resistant.

Why Gardeners Love ‘Scent First Romance’

• Highly fragrant double blooms
• Compact evergreen foliage
• Attracts butterflies and pollinators
• Long blooming from spring through fall
• Deer resistant and drought tolerant once established
• Excellent for cut flower arrangements
• Perfect for borders, containers, and rock gardens

Plant Details

• Botanical Name: Dianthus Scent First ‘Romance’
• Common Names: Carnation, Pinks, Sweet William Dianthus
• Plant Type: Evergreen Perennial
• Flower Color: Salmon Pink with Carmine-Red Center
• Foliage Color: Blue-Green
• Mature Height: 8–12 inches
• Spread: 10–14 inches
• Growth Habit: Compact, Mounding
• Bloom Season: Early Spring through Fall
• Fragrance: Strong spicy-sweet scent
• Light Requirements: Full Sun
• Soil Needs: Well-drained, neutral to slightly alkaline soil
• Water Needs: Moderate; drought tolerant once established
• Hardiness Zones: 5–9
• Characteristics: Fragrant, Deer Resistant, Pollinator-Friendly, Long Blooming

Perfect Garden Uses

Cottage gardens
Rock gardens
Sunny borders and edging
Patio containers and window boxes
Pollinator gardens
Fragrant garden collections
Low-maintenance landscapes
Cut flower gardens

Companion Plants

Pairs beautifully with:

• Nepeta (Catmint)
• Lavender
• Sedum
• Achillea (Yarrow)
• Verbena
• Erysimum (Wallflower)

These companions create a colorful, drought-tolerant cottage garden display.

Care Tips

• Plant in full sun for best flowering and fragrance
• Prefers well-drained soil
• Water regularly during establishment
• Deadhead spent blooms to encourage reblooming
• Trim lightly after flowering to maintain shape
• Mulch lightly to conserve moisture and reduce weeds