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.
