SWEET
SCABIOUS
Family DIPSACEAE
Scabiosa alropurpurea
Biennial/Annual
Known also as Mournful Widows and Pincushion
Flower, this biennial is native to southern Europe.
Of erect habit, the plant grows one to three
feet tall, with leaves divided into oblong-toothed
lobes, and flowers of purplish-rose or white and
two inches across.
It has a number of forms such as var. candidissima,
which is white and occasionally double, var. compacta,
neat and compact in its growth, var. nana and
var. pumila, both of more diminutive character
and of dwarfer habit than the type.
There are many garden forms of great attraction,
varying in colour from white to shades of pink,
salmon, red, purple and blue; much favoured as
a decorative cut flower.
Best treated as an annual.
Seed may be sown where the plants are to flower
out-of-doors in April and thinned to four inches
apart, or for earlier flowering under glass in
March, pricked off into boxes and planted out
in May.
The quality of the flowers is hardly comparable
with that of those of the perennial Scabiosa
caucasica varieties.
Propagation is from seed.
The flowering season is from July to September.
Scabious – German or Biennial
Half Hardy Annual.
Three feet.
Flowers of various colours, July to September.
The annual Scabious is a handsome double flower
with a large range of colour, from pure white
through flesh, pink, salmon, mauve, light and
deep crimson and claret to a purple that is almost
black.
The plant requires ordinary garden soil,
well dug and clean, and an open exposure.
It is,
strictly speaking, a biennial, and may be raised
in the summer in the open ground for flowering
the following season; but the most convenient
plan is to sow in moderate heat in March, treat
as half-hardy annual, and plant out a foot apart
in May.
The growth is somewhat weak and top-heavy,
and as a rule some unobtrusive hazel twigs will
be advisable to support the sprays.
As with Stocks, Phlox
Drummondii and some other annuals, the imported
packets of German Scabious seed in separate colours
are, as a rule, excellent and comparatively cheap.
See Also : Perennial
or Causcasian Scabious
|
