Knautia at Glebe Cottage

Is that a perennial ?

~think so TT
Chas bought one for me~fantastic colour.This is from Carol for the Daily Telegraph.
Pronounced 'naughtier,' this easy to grow, strikingly beautiful plant thankfully doesn't live up to its name, says Carol Klein

The most asked-about plant in our garden is Knautia macedonica, partly because its dark-crimson pompoms are strikingly beautiful, but also because its flowering season is longer than any other. Pronounced naughtier, this is also easy to grow.
Knautia macedonica used to be known as Scabiosa rumelica. It is a member of the scabious family, Dipsacaceae, with a typical central dome of fertile florets, surrounded by an enlarging skirt of decorative petals that increase its impact. In the wild it grows among grasses and other perennials in woods and in scrub.

As is the case with many wild flowers, its growth in its natural habitat is not nearly as lush as it is in the luxury offered by well-tended gardens.

The plant spreads out from a central rootstock into a broad, chalice-shaped bush, each shoot branching again and again to form a broad wiry network of stems. Every shoot and side-shoot terminates in a flower, of which established plants produce literally hundreds in a season. Individual pompoms last no longer than a fortnight before turning into spherical seed-heads of magical symmetry.

In most cases, gardening experts advocate dead-heading to prolong summer flowering. However, in the case of Knautia macedonica this is both unnecessary and unwise. The seed heads actually enhance the look of it and provide food for birds. In common with all scabious, this is an important wildlife plant, providing nectar for hoverflies, bees and butterflies.

In a good growing season clumps of knautia become so vast - even bullying other plants in late summer, unless grown on a corner or at the front of a bed - that it's tempting to shear them right down and let them start again.

A better idea is to prune some of the oldest stems back to the ground when they have reached monstrous proportions, leaving later ones intact. When the newer stems start to flower, take out more to make room for them. This careful editing is a bit of a fiddle but worth it, since it ensures that supplies of flowers are constantly maintained.
Christopher Lloyd is scathing about the plant, not least because he believes it is extremely vulnerable to powdery mildew. This usually strikes when foliage and surrounding soil are watered unevenly, and in dry, close conditions where the air is stagnant. It has occasionally been a problem at our nursery on pot-grown plants that have been watered haphazardly, but it has seldom been a nuisance in the garden.

Lloyd also says that knautia has a "popular appeal" which he finds "hard to justify". I beg to differ. Knautia has been hugely fashionable for years and is likely to be so for many more.

Growing tips

Knautia needs a sunny position to thrive. It seems to enjoy both acid and alkaline soils (unlike Scabiosa caucasica, which must have lime to make anything of itself for any length of time, and which sulks and dies in my neutral clay). Decent drainage is essential but add plenty of humus on thin, dry soils to retain moisture. Potted plants are best bought when fairly compact. Remember to allow plenty of room for expansion; knautias may reach a metre

(3½ ft) across. In The English Rock Garden (Theophrastus, 1976, sadly now out of print) Reginald Farrer says it should be confined to the outskirts of the rock garden.

Propagation

Deprive the birds of one or two seed heads in order to raise new plants. Surface sow, covering with grit - we started approximately three weeks ago and the seedlings are almost ready to prick out. Knautia can also be raised easily from soft cuttings taken in April or May.
Good companions

This is an easy plant to marry up. Its colouring is ideal with pale pinks and white, short roses, pink and white chicory or Malva moschata f. alba. Try it, too, with soft pale-yellow and cream; for instance, Scabiosa columbaria subsp. ochroleuca makes a perfect partner. It has pale-lemon flowers of similar construction but its growth, though wiry, is much more upright. It makes a perfect backdrop for the richly glamorous, deep-crimson pompoms of the knautia.

Where to buy

According to the RHS Plant Finder (www.rhs.org.uk/rhsplantfinder/plantfinder.asp), there are more than 30 suppliers of Knautia macedonica around the country, so it is relatively easy to get hold of. We recommend: Hopleys Plants, High Street, Much Hadham, Hertfordshire SG10 6BU (01279 842509; www.hopleys.co.uk).

Mail order available - send five 1st-class stamps for a catalogue. Open March to October, Mon, Wed to Sat, from 9am to 5pm, or by appointment. If you prefer to use fresh seed it is available from Glebe Cottage Plants, Pixie Lane, Warkleigh, Umberleigh, Devon EX37 9DH. Send £2 and an sae.