Growing Carnation: A Complete Profile
By Growing Home Greens Team · August 13, 2026
Carnation is the flower most people picture from a grocery-store bouquet, but the plant behind that image is a tender perennial, hardy in zones 6-8 and grown as an annual everywhere else. The seed-grown strain behind almost every home planting is Chabaud, a French heirloom bred for fragrance and cutting rather than the scentless, long-shelf-life carnations sold at florists today.
A slow start, the same cool trick as Sweet William
Start seed indoors 6 to 8 weeks before your last frost, pressed lightly into the growing medium rather than buried. Germination takes 7 to 14 days at 65-72°F. Space plants 6 inches apart.
Carnation shares its genus with Sweet William, and shares its one real trick, too: keep young plants at 50-55°F while they develop. Warmer than that, especially overnight above 65°F, and you get tall, weak stems instead of the compact, well-branched plant that produces the most flowers.
A long season for a real reason
At 130 to 140 days to maturity, carnation is one of the slower flowers here, roughly twice Sweet William’s 60 days. That’s the tradeoff for the flower everyone pictures at the word “carnation”: full, double, ruffled blooms instead of Sweet William’s small clustered ones. Plants reach 24 to 30 inches, so plan for a stake or grow-through support once they start flowering.
Keeping it blooming
Pinch young plants to force branching, since an unpinched carnation puts up one central stem and stops. Deadhead spent flowers through summer to keep new buds coming. Rich, sandy, slightly alkaline soil suits it best, and wet, heavy ground is the fastest way to lose a planting that’s supposed to be a perennial.
Carnation has no well-established companion pairings, and nothing it needs to be kept away from. At 4 plants per square foot, it fits the same border-filler role as Sweet William in the Garden Designer.
Source: Chabaud La France Dianthus (Carnation) Seed, Johnny’s Selected Seeds.
Companion planting guide for Carnation · Find your planting dates
Typically viable in USDA zones 3-9. Not sure your zone? Look it up by ZIP code.
Mature height: 2-2.5 ft
Method: Start indoors: Start indoors from seed, then transplant outside. It needs a head start most zones can't give it by direct-sowing alone.
When to plant carnation, by zone
Every zone carnation grows in. Pick your zone in the header and it will be highlighted here. Each zone links to its full page.
| Zone | Start indoors | Sow or plant out | Bloom |
|---|---|---|---|
| 3a & 3b | Apr 11–Apr 18 | May 23–May 30 | Oct 5–Oct 12 |
| 4a & 4b | Mar 27–Apr 3 | May 8–May 15 | Sep 20–Sep 27 |
| 5a & 5b | Mar 22–Mar 29 | May 3–May 10 | Sep 15–Sep 22 |
| 6a & 6b | Mar 7–Mar 14 | Apr 18–Apr 25 | Aug 31–Sep 7 |
| 7a & 7b | Feb 20–Feb 27 | Apr 3–Apr 10 | Aug 16–Aug 23 |
| 8a & 8b | Feb 4–Feb 11 | Mar 18–Mar 25 | Jul 31–Aug 7 |
| 9a & 9b | Dec 28–Jan 4 | Feb 8–Feb 15 | Jun 23–Jun 30 |
Bloom dates are about 135 days after the sow or plant-out date, not after starting seeds indoors.
See exact start-indoors, direct-sow, and harvest dates for your zone →
How many Carnation plants fit per square foot?
Spacing: 4 per square foot (square-foot-gardening spacing). Mature height: 2-2.5 ft.
Varieties worth considering
- Chabaud La France (best for: cut-flower fragrance): A French heirloom dating to the 1800s, with frilly, double, shell-pink blooms and the sweet, spicy clove scent old-fashioned carnations are known for. Johnny's rates it 130-140 days to maturity and 24-30in tall, blooming late July through August. (source)
Why each variety is listed comes from the source shown next to it. We haven't grown these ourselves yet, so treat this as a research-backed starting point, not a personal endorsement. The buy links are separate from those sources: they go to seed suppliers that sell that exact variety, and we may earn a commission on some of them.
Where to buy carnation seeds
True Leaf Market · Burpee (each supplier's carnation seeds)
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See it growing
Search YouTube for "growing carnation" videos → (a live search, not a hand-picked video; results vary and aren't vetted by us)
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Growing Carnation: The clove-scented Chabaud strain is the closest thing to a florist carnation you can grow from seed, and it needs the same cool start as its cousin, Sweet William.
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