PlantFiles: Pincushion Flower
Scabiosa columbaria 'Butterfly Blue'

For me, I found the flowers to be a little boring. Even though I deadheaded the spent blooms regularly, mine always seemed a little scraggly, maybe becase the blooms didn't last very long. And it was a very short-lived plant for me, lasting just one season. Maybe I will try them again in a different location.

A wonderful perennial that performs on every front. Has cottage garden elegance yet is as tough as old boots. Has copped blasts of 110 F winds in high summer, as well as frosts down to 20 F, and it just stands up every day. Is reasonably drought-tolerant too - just the odd watering needed in our semi-Mediterranean Zone 9a climate in southern Australia.

The other brilliant thing about this flower is that it flowers much of the year. Is not too bad in cut-flower arrangements either.

I'm a fan of the flowers. However it seems to host powdery mildew. Does not respond as quickly as I would like to fungicides or abatement measures.

When new leaves form on the base of this plant, they don't look like the more mature leaves. I thought I had a weed mixed in with the plant until I looked more closely. It is a wonderful, long blooming perennial.

Blue pincushion flower is a hardy, prolific plant. I planted three in Fall 2004. The mature plants are full of blooms. Earlier this week, I counted 121 blooms in flower and more to come.

Update: September 26, 2006. The pincushion flowers are still blooming. They bloom all year around. Does anyone know when I am supposed to prune them?

Thanks,

Chuck

It blooms all summer long from late may untill early october in long island, New york.

Wire-like stems and pretty pale purple flowers, even spent blooms look interesting (like pincushions!), but it's best to deadhead for repeat blooming.

In the spring, plant starts out in a compact clump, tall stems emerge abouve the clump beginning in May.

My third-year pincushion flowers bloom almost year-round in my garden, disappearing only in January and February. They are large and in full bloom when everything else is still just coming up. They slack off a little in our hot summers, but do still flower. Pest free and no special care. Very attractive to butterflies and bees.

The scabiouses like neutral to slightly alkaline conditions.

Deadhead to prolong flowering. Divide the clumps every few years to stimulate growth. This plant can take pretty dry conditions and requires a well drained soil. It is especially important to keep it out of wet conditions in winter.

'Butterfly Blue' will flower almost continuously in frost-free areas except during very hot mid-summer weather.

I've divided it, traded it, and basically paid no attention to it whatsover. It just keeps coming back year after year, providing prolific flowers through all but the heat of mid summer. It's dependable in my zone 4a garden. I've had the same plant for 5 full seasons now, growing in a front, full sun, southern exposed border.

This perennial grows wonderfully for me in part shade. It blooms through the intense Texas August heat (with deadheading) and blooms into Christmas time here where I am almost in Zone 7b. January and February were the only months it did not have at least one bloom on it. Plus, the foliage is evergreen and looked great all winter.

I've grown this plant in several perennial gardens in Northern CA where summer temps can top 100 for many days running and in Central OR where winter temps are below freezing and frost can extend well into May. This plant performed brilliantly in both of those climates. It blooms and blooms, is a "good neighbor" for all sorts of others (color, not invasive), makes even beginning gardners look good and, a real bonus in my current home in Oregon, NOTHING seems to eat it...neither deer nor chipmunks, which devour many of my other plants. In my experience, this is a winner!

'Butterfly Blue' is very short-lived; it may be treated as a biennial. Seed may be gathered, most will come true; rogue variants.