There are some plants, like roses and pansies, that I cannot resist. Then there are the plants that I have resisted for years, usually for no good reason. Last week, however, I saw a plant that passed instantly from the “resistible” to the “irresistible” category. The plant was a scabiosa, sometimes known as “pincushion flower,” the species was S. atropurpurea and the variety was ‘Ace of Spades’. It was tall and gangly, at least thirty-six-inches high, and its sparse, slender, somewhat scalloped leaves were nothing to write home about. The two-inch flowers, though, were lovely, with rounded central “cushions” surrounded by dark maroon petals that looked black from only a few feet away. Here and there the “cushions” were flecked with white, and I could almost imagine that they were full of tiny silver-topped pins. I have resisted scabiosa from California to Connecticut and all the mail order catalogs in between, but I just had to have ‘Ace of Spades’.
Scabiosa has been in cultivation for centuries, never managing to lose its unfortunate genus name, which comes from the Latin word for “itch”. Apparently before the invention of modern-day itch creams, people made decoctions from the leaves or flowers of scabiosa to treat scabies and other itchy rashes. You would think that the great Linnaeus could have come up with a better Latin name, but perhaps he had a rash at the time. Fortunately butterflies cannot read. They flock to scabiosa, making it a wonderful addition to butterfly gardens.
Of all the scabiosa that I have passed up, none is more famous that S. columbaria ‘Butterfly Blue’. Discovered in an Irish garden over forty years ago by plant breeder David Tristam, the plant has frilly, pale purplish-blue flowers and a basal rosette of gray-green foliage, ‘Butterfly Blue’, at twelve inches tall, is shorter than my ‘Ace of Spades’, but it shares a love of sunshine and tendency to bloom over a long season. This scabiosa’s winning qualities earned it the Perennial Plant Association’s “Perennial Plant of the Year” designation for 2000. In addition to charming gardeners all over the world, ‘Butterfly Blue’ produced a sport, or spontaneous genetic mutation, with a pink flower. Christened ‘Pink Mist,’ the new variety shares all of its parent’s winning qualities and has become popular in its own right. The species name, “columbaria” comes from the Latin word for “dove”, perhaps in reference to the graceful qualities of the flower petals.
‘Pink Lemonade’ is another sport of ‘Butterfly Blue.’ Like ‘Pink Mist’ it has rosy-colored flowers, but it adds variegated foliage to its list of attractions. The green leaves have irregular pale yellow margins, which add a little interest when the plant is not flowering.
If space is a problem, try S. columbaria ‘Pincushion Pink’ or S. japonica ‘Blue Diamonds’. The latter, with its bright blue flowers and six inch stature, would also make a wonderful rock garden specimen.
Scabiosa caucasica is worth trying even though some garden authorities think that the S. columbaria varieties are better garden plants. Among the notable S. caucasica varieties are the white ‘Alba’, and the blue-purple ‘Fama’, which is distinguished by especially large, four-inch diameter flowers.
Now that I have S. atropurpurea ‘Ace of Spades’, I am tempted to try and get my hands on some of its relatives from the ‘Chili’ series of English scabiosa cultivars. ‘Chili Sauce’ and ‘Chili Black’ are dark and darkest maroon-black. It would be interesting to compare ‘Chili Black’ with “Ace of Spades’. ‘Chili Pepper’ is dark red. On the lighter side, there is also S. atropurpurea ‘Fata Morgana’, which one vendor describes as “soft-yellow-blushed-pink.” For lovers of the truly fluffy, there is the many-petaled S. atropurpurea ‘Florists’ Blue’ and the white ‘Snow Maiden’. Because of their long, nearly naked stems, all the atropurpureas make excellent cut flowers.
Like the vast majority of garden-worthy plants, scabiosa prefer well-drained soil. They can survive in acid soil, but do better in a more alkaline environment. Practical English sources sometimes recommend dealing with this issue by adding a stick of white school chalk when planting scabiosa in areas with acid soil. One caveat–make sure that the chalk you add is actually real chalk and not some modern artificial construct.
Now that scabiosa has become irresistible to me, I mean to get more of it. The quest may become so intense that I’ll even walk by an alluring rosebush or two. Begin your own quest at local nurseries, which will probably carry at least ‘Butterfly Blue’, and possibly ‘Pink Mist’. Seek out other species and cultivars at Annie’s Annuals,
P.O. Box 5053 , Richmond , CA 94805 , Phone (510) 215-1671, www.anniesannuals.com; or Bluestone Perennials, 7211 Middle Ridge Rd. , Madison, OH . Phone (800) 852-5243, www.bluestoneperennials.com. Free catalog.