Scabiosa

Flower care guide

Scabiosa

A soft ruffled disc with a domed centre studded like a pincushion. Delicate, slightly wild, and the thing that stops a formal arrangement looking stiff.

In season

Late spring through autumn.

Also known as

Pincushion flower, Scabious

Caring for your scabiosa

Cut the wiry stems cleanly at an angle and strip any lower foliage.

Change the water every two days. Scabiosa is not long-lived and clean water is most of what extends it.

Keep them somewhere cool. They are noticeably shorter-lived in a warm room, and direct sun finishes them quickly.

As each flower goes over, a papery seed head is left behind. Many people leave these in the arrangement deliberately; they last far longer than the flower did and give the vase a second life.

The seed heads left behind after scabiosa flowers drop are sold as a cut stem in their own right, papery spheres that last for months.

Arrangements with this flower