A British native wildflower that works well in the garden. Flowers in June and July.
Good for any damp planting and useful in meadow schemes where a Spring meadow management regime can be applied. The flowers are dusky blue buttons held on stiffly branching stems. Particularly effective en masse. Grows on slightly acid to calcareous soils. A wildflower that can holds its own in the border. Happy in most soils, including damp. Sun or partial shade.
Height: 30-60cm
Common name(s): Devil’s Bit Scabious, Blue Buttons, Angel's Pincushion, Stinking Nancy
History:
Traditionally used to cure plague, fever, freckles and almost anything. The curious common name, Devil’s Bit Scabious has two roots. Scabious derives from the use of the plant to cure skin ailments such as scabies and even those from the bubonic plague, (Scabere is the Latin for scratch). ‘Devil’s Bit’ derives from folk tales of the Devil biting off the short black roots in his anger at the plants medicinal abilities.
All our plants are supplied in 9cm pots unless otherwise specified. Plants in this size pot establish quickly in the garden and often outpace plants in bigger pots planted at the same time. Our potted plants can be planted immediately, unless otherwise noted, or you can leave them in their pots until you are ready to plant.
The majority of our plants are grown outdoors. This means that they follow their natural growth patterns and are ready to plant at any time of the year. If you order the plants in winter, they are likely to be dormant and died back to ground level, ready to shoot again in spring - just like the herbaceous perennials in your own garden. Very occasionally, in winter and early spring, we may indicate on the packing slip that a plant needs to be hardened off before planting out. This will be because it has just come out of a polytunnel. If you have any questions about our plants or growing methods, please feel free to drop us an email.
We grow most of what we sell ourselves, in our nursery in the Buckinghamshire countryside. Our prices include VAT at 20%.
Please note: We do our best to provide acurate photographs of the plants we sell, but colours display differently on different screens, printers and in different light and we cannot guarantee that what you are seeing on your screen, or on the plant label provided, will exactly match the plant when it flowers in your garden. Plant dimensions are given as a guide only and the actual sizes reached may vary from garden to garden, depending on local conditions.