While many excellent new varietiies of standard and spray carnations continue to be  bred in the Ligurian region, their Italian origin is obscured by the fact that the vast majority are distributed worldwide by foreign companies. Often the only reference to their Italian origin is the breeder’s code.  Important breeders include: Flavio Sapia, Famiglia Di Giorgio, Massimo Baratta, Flavio Sapia Costanzo, Paolo Taroni, Sergio Santamaria. A list of codes is provided to enable readers to undertsand the codes in flower catalogues: ngr (Nobbio), Hybrida, Hybgr (Hybrida), sapgr (Flavio Sapia Costanzo, abgr (Agostino baratta), nbr (Nicoletta Baratta), lvgr (La Villetta), dg (Di Giorgio), SM (Santamaria), mgr (Moraglia).  Edward Bent,  E-mail: hortcom@tin.it