Scabious Oxford Blue

Why I grow it
Scabious is one of my absolute favourite flowers. I tuck it through my potager gardens amongst the vegetables, where the flowers bob up between everything else and are constantly visited by pollinators.

It also means I can head out to pick a lettuce for dinner and come back with a handful of flowers at the same time — which is pretty much how I want a garden to work.

‘Oxford Blue’ produces beautiful deep blue-purple pincushion-like flowers on long, slender stems that are excellent for cutting.

At a glance
Type: Flowering plant
Variety: Oxford Blue
Growth: Upright, branching with long flower stems
Flowers: Deep blue-purple pincushion flowers
Good for: Potager planting, cutting and pollinators
Inventory: 4 plants

In the garden
Tuck it amongst vegetables, herbs and other flowers in a potager, or grow it through a mixed border or cutting garden. The foliage doesn't take up huge amounts of visual space and the long flower stems rise above surrounding plants.

It's particularly good for breaking down the entirely unnecessary distinction between the vegetable garden and the flower garden.

For cutting
Scabious makes a brilliant cut flower. Pick stems regularly as the flowers open and keep deadheading anything you don't cut to encourage more blooms.

Care
Full sun and reasonably well-drained soil. Water while establishing and during prolonged dry periods. Regular cutting and deadheading will help extend flowering.

What you’ll receive
One established Scabious ‘Oxford Blue’ plant.

Plants naturally vary in size and shape and may be supplied in reused nursery pots or growing bags — perfectly useful plastic doesn't need replacing simply because it doesn't match.