Pincushion flower provides frilly, lavender-blue blooms off and on through the late fall and winter in a micro-climate area of my zone 7 garden. Scabiosa 'Butterfly Blue' is not only evergreen, but blooms almost continuously when there are no other colorful blooms in the garden. It can be propagated by division, cuttings or grown from seed.
Scabiosa is a nice little compact plant for the cottage garden. Planted in full sun to part shade, pincushion flower prefers soil that is a bit on the dry side. Suitable for zones 3-8, the clumps grow in size from 1-3 feet.
This fall, I had to dig out my large scabiosa plants that had been undermined (literally) by crabgrass that was almost impossible to separate from the perennial roots. I had divided out this little plant in the spring and it is now the survivor of my original plantings.
This scabiosa (pictured) is blooming right now in my cottage garden, providing a pretty little face among the foliage of other perennials. It is planted beside a burgundy loropetalum shrub and creeping perennial heliotrope. Other companions in that garden include monarda, echinacea, salvia greggii, lavender and dianthus. The foliage of the monarda, lavender, salvia greggii and dianthus provide semi-evergreen and evergreen foliage for this garden by our front porch.
Story and photo by Freda Cameron
