Perfect pincushions

Scabious, also known as pincushion flowers, produce gorgeous blooms that lure bees and provide cut flowers for the vase. Hazel Sillver looks at the best types to plant now

SCABIOUS are annuals and perennials with an unfussy charm that suit modern naturalistic planting cottage-style gardens. The domed or disc flowerheads, which resemble a pincushion, hence their alternative name of pincushion flower, and contain around 50 flowers, are packed with nectar that lures bees and butterflies throughout summer and into early autumn. On top of that, they are easy to grow, drought-tolerant and make great cut flowers.

The name scabious is said to relate to the plant's old use in folk medicine as a treatment for scabies, which creates an itchy rash. Indeed, the herbalist Nicholas Culpeper recommended it for itchy skin, sores and spots.

The common name scabious collectively refers to three genera (Cephalaria, Knautia and Scabiosa), which, confusingly, were all previously known as Scabiosa. Very closely related, they are all bracketed in the sub-family Dipsacoideae within the larger honeysuckle family (Caprifoliaceae).

Also contained within the Dipsacoideae are teasels, which, like scabious, provide seeds for goldfinches, and devil's-bit scabious (Succisa pratensis), which has bold purple-blue domed flowers with pink anthers in late summer and autumn.

But our most familiar wild pincushion is Knautia arvensis, the field scabious, which is great for a meadow-style area of the garden. "Descendants of this pretty wildflower have become some of our favorite cottage-garden plants," says gardener and author Sarah Raven. "It flowers right through the summer, and has high-quality nectar for butterflies and bees. Many insects home in on it above other chalk meadow flowers, and finches and linnets also love its seed."