I transplanted my scabiosa babies this morning before lunch. They'd been incubating in their little peat-pellet nursery for a couple of weeks, and had started to out-grow it a tad. Most of them had developed their secondary leaves and all of them had little white rootlets poking out from the pellets, so it was time to move them to a larger playroom -- in this case a variety of 3" - 8" pots (and a couple of make-shift pots from the bottoms of Diet Coke bottles) on my front porch. I don't quite trust the weather around here, so I wanted something I can move quickly if I needed to -- which I may be doing soon. The wind is kicking up out there again.
It was a real pleasure to find this particular variety of scabiosa again. I really can't stand the basic powder blue and pretty pink varieties we get from the nurseries around here. They're kind of insipid looking -- the milquetoasts of the garden set. A few years ago, however, I found a variety of dark purple scabiosas called Ace of Spades. I don't remember now where I got them, and can't locate them again from any of my regular suppliers, so I must have just stumbled across them somewhere. Only a few of the seeds sprouted and only about five or six of those survived to be transplanted into the garden. But once they were there, wow!
Those few plants completely took over a 3' x 4' raised bed, squeezed out everything but the climbing rose. And the flowers! Twice the size of the regular scabiosas, dark red-purple, absolutely stunning. I loved them. I collected some seeds from them, but we moved soon afterwards and I have no idea what happened to the seeds.
Then this spring I was wandering through the local Home Depot, and there on the Burpee's seed display was a pack of mixed scabiosa seeds -- dark purple and pure white. I don't know for certain if these are my Ace of Spades scabiosas or some other similar variety, but I hope they are as successful in this garden as in the last.
It was a real pleasure to find this particular variety of scabiosa again. I really can't stand the basic powder blue and pretty pink varieties we get from the nurseries around here. They're kind of insipid looking -- the milquetoasts of the garden set. A few years ago, however, I found a variety of dark purple scabiosas called Ace of Spades. I don't remember now where I got them, and can't locate them again from any of my regular suppliers, so I must have just stumbled across them somewhere. Only a few of the seeds sprouted and only about five or six of those survived to be transplanted into the garden. But once they were there, wow!
Those few plants completely took over a 3' x 4' raised bed, squeezed out everything but the climbing rose. And the flowers! Twice the size of the regular scabiosas, dark red-purple, absolutely stunning. I loved them. I collected some seeds from them, but we moved soon afterwards and I have no idea what happened to the seeds.
Then this spring I was wandering through the local Home Depot, and there on the Burpee's seed display was a pack of mixed scabiosa seeds -- dark purple and pure white. I don't know for certain if these are my Ace of Spades scabiosas or some other similar variety, but I hope they are as successful in this garden as in the last.
3 comments:
I adore scabiosa in flower arrangements. Ace of Spades sounds fabulous. I'm going to try to look it up
Sorry it's taken me a while to respond. If I remember correctly, I may have gotten the Ace of Spades from a British supplier who's willing to ship to the US. I just can't remember which one.
Ooh, enjoy your scabiosa seedlings. They look so cute, all potted up like that. :)
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