Sweet William Indian Carpet Mixed

The dwarf form, at 15 to 25cm instead of 45 to 60, and bushy with it. Same dense bicolour clusters and the same clove scent, on a plant small enough for the front of a border, a rockery, a path edge or a window box.

The bicolours in this strain are particularly vivid: red with white eyes, pink with crimson blotches, rose with pale centres, deep maroon edged in white. Nothing else easy to grow gives quite that palette of tightly packed two-tone clusters.

The trade-off is on the stem. At this height it is not a cutting flower; you get the scent by walking past it rather than by having it in a jug. If you want sweet william for the vase, grow the tall one.

It is a biennial, so the first year is leaves only and the flowering comes the second spring. Sow a short row each year to keep it coming. It self-seeds reliably once you have it, and the dwarf habit largely holds in the offspring.