Scabiosa

Botanical/Latin
   Scabiosa

Pronunciation
   ska-be-oh-sa

Common Name
   Pincushion Flower

Hardiness zone range
   4 - 7

General Comments
Magnificent plants that include some of most popular and admired garden perennials. They have pincushion type flowers, in shades of lavender-blue, pink, and ivory-yellow, carried in amazing profusion from May until frost.

Uses
They are especially good in high profile beds and borders, in old fashioned style cottage gardens, and on banks and slopes, where the flowers will make a perpetually dazzling display. The abundance of flowers and tolerance to summer heat make the compact types ideal subjects for containers, window boxes, tubs, and troughs. They attract butterflies and hummingbirds and the sturdy stems and dainty flowers make great cut flowers.

Deer do not like to graze on the "furry" foliage, so they are very useful in localities where deer are a problem.

Light Preference
Sunny open positions

Culture
Needing only a sunny location in a well drained fertile soil, they are easy and rewarding plants to grow. It is important to avoid waterlogged conditions (particularly in winter), and while they do best in sandy or chalky soils where the pH is on the alkaline side of neutral, they thrive well in almost any good garden soil.

At planting time, it is worth considering adding extra humus (peat, compost, leaf mold), grit or sand and perhaps a dressing of ground limestone; this is important with clay soils or in areas with high rainfall.

Light applications with a balanced fertilizer and regular watering in dry periods during the growing season will help to keep them lush and continually in flower.

Background
In nature, they are usually found on calcareous hills and pastures in the Mediterranean region and elsewhere in Europe. They belong to the teasel family Dipsacaceae, and have been used medicinally since ancient times to heal wounds and ailments of the skin; the botanical name is derived from this. Until recently, the most important cultivars were developed mainly for the florist trade. The exotic, long stemmed flowers produced from the cultivars of S. caucasica are borne in great profusion and make excellent cut flowers. During the 1950's, David Tristram, a brewer at the Guinness company in Ireland, cadged a cutting of a little Scabiosa that he admired in the garden of a friend in Ireland. At first, he did not think much of the little plant that he called "Irish Perpetual Flowering Scabiosa"; however, he thought enough of it to take it with him when he moved to England in 1973. Ten years later, he had developed a nursery which was part of a larger nursery marketing group. When they were looking for new plants to introduce, David suggested the little Scabiosa. Botanists and plant experts at the Royal Horticultural Society's Garden at Wisley and Kew Gardens declared it a form of the species S.columbria. David was asked to name it. He noticed that butterflies loved it, so it became Scabiosa `Butterfly Blue'. It rapidly became a garden favorite and the selection panel of the Perennial Plant Association thought so much of it that they chose it as their "2000 Perennial Plant of the Year". Together with its offspring Scabiosa `Pink Mist', it is now grown and enjoyed in countless gardens all over the world.

Splendor Suggestions
Shear back the old flower heads when most have finished flowering. This will keep the mounds neat and tidy, encourage fresh growth, and successive flushes of flowers.

Companion Plants
Try them with silver ground cover like Artemisia `Silver Brocade or `Silver Mound'; other good companions would be Dianthus, especially `Kinsey Blue', or the meadow sage, Salvia `May Night'.

The spiky blades of Festuca `Elijah Blue' or Panicum `Heavy Metal' provide nice foliage contrasts, and the subtle sophistication of the white coneflower Echinacea 'White Swan' or obedient plant Physostegia `Summer Snow' provide elegance and height to compliment these outstanding performers.