Carnations and Gilly Flowers

Seventeenth- and eighteenth-century English households used considerable quantities of clove gilly flowers for salads, soups and desserts, candying the flowers for decoration of cakes, fools and custards, and also as a soothing cordial for coughs and sore throats.

So much more attractive a name than ‘carnation’, the gilly – or July – flower denotes the family of sweetly scented flowers that include clove pinks, phlox, Sweet Williams and the stiffly formal carnation. To a greater or lesser degree, the spicy smell of cloves enveloped in a cloud of their sweet fragrance is the distinguishing feature of the entire family. Choose the most perfumed flowers you can from amongst the pinks and carnations.