Would you look at this big, tall, bushy Dianthus?! No shrinking violet, it's as vigorous and determined to bloom as its size would indicate. And the flowers are gorgeous -- neatly serrated and suffused with fire-engine-red petals around a small rosy-pink eye. Best of all is that this interspecific hybrid is prepared to overwinter all the way through zone 5 in the north. No more buying new plants for a few years!

Rockin' Red is a cross of D. barbatus (the beloved Bachelor's Button) with other species, and it's got the best merits of all of them. The blooms are incredibly profuse in sunny to partly shaded settings. Cut them for the vase and their subtle clove-like scent really comes into its own indoors; let they stay in the garden and they are a siren for butterflies! So tall, sturdy, and profuse!

And Rockin' Red backs up all that beauty with superior garden performance. It grows robustly and puts up with environmental challenges from heat and humidity to poor soil, reaching 18 to 24 inches high (seriously!) and up to a foot wide. When winter comes, it will die back in colder areas, but pop right up again in spring! At last, a Dianthus that can survive severe weather like a true perennial!

Deer leave this Dianthus alone, but pollinators adore it! And the seed is easy to start in the Bio Dome indoors in late winter or in the garden after danger of frost. Dianthus likes full sun in the north, dappled or part shade farther south and west. Packet is 10 seeds.