Stunning blooms for your summer garden

Which? Gardening have tested almost 40 types of scabious flowers, and can now reveal their best-buy varieties that will add a wonderful array of colour to your summer garden
25 February 2016
The black buds of the 'Ace of spades' variety open into velvety purple-red flowers

BEST BUYS: SCABIOUS

1. Scabiosa caucasica ‘Fama’
2. Scabiosa atropurpurea ‘Ace of Spades’
3. Scabiosa atropurpurea ‘Dwarf Mixed Colours’
The flowers of 'Black Cat' have a lovely dark-maroon colour and velvety texture
4. Scabiosa atropurpurea ‘Black Cat’
5. Scabiosa atropurpurea ‘Oxford Blue’
6. Scabiosa ‘Summer Berries’
The pretty blooms of 'Beaujolais Bonnets' have white-petal edges which age gracefully
7. Scabiosa atropurpurea ‘Beaujolais Bonnets’
8. Scabiosa stellata ‘Ping Pong’
9. Scabiosa ‘Pin Cushion Mix’
10. Scabiosa ‘Fire King’
'Ritz Blue' was the shortest variety in the trial, but also the neatest
11. Scabiosa japonica ‘Ritz Blue’
12. Scabiosa atropurpurea ‘Snow maiden’
13. Scabiosa ‘Fata Morgana’
The milk-white flowers of 'Perfecta Alba' are popular with bees
14. Scabiosa caucasica ‘Perfecta Alba’

How to grow scabious from seed

To try your first three issues of Which? and Which? Gardening for just £3, call 0800 389 8855 and quote VEG222F
All pictures courtesy of Which? Gardening

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in