PlantFiles: Pincushion Flower
Scabiosa columbaria

I planted this on the north side of my home in a partly shady area this past summer. It did absolutely fantastic. I really enjoyed watching the butterflies which were attracted to the flower. The blooms were the last to stop this fall.

I have planted them several times, pink, blue and white. I got leggy plants with very few blooms in spite of the fact that I followed the directions. Pink and blue were indistinguishable. The white came back as a weed, again with no blooms to speak of, on 3' stalks. The pictures are beautiful, but I don't know how they got that way.

I live in Surrey, B.C. Canada (Zone 4a) and also love this plant for its unusual flower and ease of growing. It is in a raised bed facing west so does not get anything but evening sun and yet it blooms its little heart out for me. There have been no problems with disease nor any sign that it has been bothered by insect pests. I noticed this afternoon that it will soon be blooming. As these plants will continue in bloom, providing I remember to fertilize them occasionally and deadhead them regularly, until late September or early October I think that few plants can beat this one.

Although pretty early in the season, this plant has proven over the years to reseed freely and become invasive. It also develops powdery mildew in August in south central Idaho. Not recommended.

I have the yellow/off white that is reseeded after 1 year (planted June 18, 2004) but very slow growing. It is just now starting to bloom. I got 2 lavender & 1 lt blue this spring & they look really bad. One died, the other two are short & slowly coming back after a good shearing. MO zone 5 1/2

the plants in my garden have been there three years and they never seem to stop blooming! I'm a beginner gardener-my mother planted them for me when I moved into the house- so, i don't know all the terminology, but we've already had a couple of "freezes" (zone 8) and they're still flowering. I deadhead them and they give me more flowers.

I also love the black color and was crushed when I found the plant at a nursery last year, only to be told it was not for sale ,just for display! I was very happy to find the seeds available in the 2005 Burpee's catalog this month.

i live in anchorage ak and have 3 plants they have all done well here they like sun and compost. i am very happy to have them it got down below 0 farenhiet and we had a long winter this past one but very warm this summer

I first planted pincushion flowers 3 years ago - blue, pink yellow and white. Only the white survived, but it grows like a weed in my zone 6 garden. I have it planted everywhere in my garden now, including containers, and have given it away to several people. I have clay soil that is slightly acidic and amended with home grown compost to lighten its structure.

I planted this plant with the hopes of using it as a cut flower. Unfortunately, the stems are quite short so it was not very useful for that purpose. I guess I don't have the same growing conditions as Debsey who reported that this is an excellent plant for floral arrangements. The plant does tend to spread, but can be controlled easily.

San Antonio, Tx.
The pibcushion plants I planted last year in the ground did not perform well for me. They became very floppy, developed a fungus and I had to remove them. My neighbor's are doing fine this year. I do not know what I did wrong.

I planted the scabiosa last spring and it performed very well; as soon as I pinched off old flowers, new ones appeared.
It bloomed steadily until hard frost.
Unfortuantely, only half the scabiosa I put in my garden came back this spring. But they performed so well I think I'll replace the ones that died.

I love these plants, but my soil is heavy clay. They tolerate it, but don't seem to like it much. I have gone to the trouble of digging out the clay in my scabiosa patch and replacing it with good compost in the hopes of cheering them up.

Bumblebees love the flowers.

Introduced into Britain in 1591, the centers resemble a pincushion before opening hence the name Pincushion Flower.

The Pincushion Flower blooms for a long period of time and the cut flower are excellent in floral arrangements.
Easy to grow and love well drained soil.
Propagate by root division in spring.