Scabiosa 'Kudo White' flower with variegated sage

A Remnant of Summer

Posted on by Ann Mackay

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After Storm Babet passed by, there was not a lot left in flower in the garden. The asters which had provided some late colour have mostly gone over, and the last purple-blue ones that hang on now look tattered and disheveled after all the rain.

The white scabious flower pictured above is one of the flowers that remain and it even has buds yet to open. I find that the scabious and related knautia plants do continue to produce a few flowers until late in the year if I remember to deadhead them. At this stage, any colour that remains in my garden is a bonus. If it’s something that bees and other pollinators like, it’s an even bigger bonus. Scabious is very popular with insects, so it is proving its value here.

The white-flowered plant is Scabiosa ‘Kudo White’ and the dark red one below is Scabiosa atropurpurea ‘Chile Black’. I hope that the white one will self-seed as readily as the dark scabious has. They are so attractive and long-flowering (right from the middle of summer) that I’d be happy to give them quite a bit of space in the borders.

Hmm…for some reason ‘Scabiosa’ sounds to me like something Hermione from the ‘Harry Potter’ books would say, with a deft flick of her wand. Maybe it’s a spell for filling a garden with flowers… 🙂

Flower of a red Scabious with a hoverfly
Scabious with hoverfly
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Published by Ann Mackay

Photographer, mixed-media art adventurer and completely daft about plants.......

27 thoughts on “A Remnant of Summer”

    1. There’s a few of these very dark scabious flowers that are similar and hard to tell apart. I’ve just bought another that looks slightly more crimson, but just as dark. I wonder if I’ll get crosses between the different plants… 🙂

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  2. That hoverfly was an excellent contrasting touch to set off the dark hues of the flower. I haven’t read any of the Harry Potter books or seen any of the movies, but scabious means ‘of or relating to scabies,’ so the flower’s name has a negative connotation for me.

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    1. Thank you Liz! This is a tiny part of a border with a lot of dark reds, white and some pinks in it. Lots of plants needing to be moved and areas to be sorted out at the moment. (Will have to wait a bit though because the ground is too wet after all the rain.)

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  4. I never can read about your ‘scabious’ without thinking of scabies; the very name makes me assume an ugly flower. Of course that isn’t true. These are very attractive, especially that white one at the top. It’s willingness to keep blooming would keep it in the ‘keeper’ column for me, despite its name!

    It seemed there had to be some connection, and here’s what I found: “The common name Scabious comes from Scabiosa herba, the scabies herb, because it was thought to be an effective treatment of that disease. Other common names given to this wildflower include the Pincushion Flower and Lady’s Pincushion.” Looking further, I found this: “the genus name comes from the Latin scabies, or ‘itch,’ in reference to the plant’s rough leaves.” So the name makes sense, even though my first association wasn’t so pleasant!

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  6. Hi Ann! Wow – Storm Babet sounds like you live in my part of the world. We didn’t get any storms or hurricanes (so far) this year which is unusual. I really like this plant – both colors. Since I am not really a gardener like you, exactly what is deadheading? Lovely images!

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    1. It’s unusual for here…but maybe it’s part of climate change. We may have to expect the unexpected! Deadheading is simply removing the dead flower heads…it helps the plant to put energy into making more flowers instead of seeds. Hope your weather stays calm!

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    1. The name is a bit unfair for such a pretty flower! The common name is pincushion flower but I never hear folk using it. (And in any case, I tend not to use common names on the blog because they are used for different plants in different countries.)

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