Plant of the Moment – No.12 Knautia macedonica

This scabious may be native to the Balkans, as indicated by its specific name, but makes itself perfectly at home outside our guest bedroom, spreading from a central rootstock to make a sprawling mass of branching wiry stems that bear a profusion of maroon flowers from early summer right through to late autumn. The flowers are followed by attractive pale-green seedheads, while new flowering shoots form at the joints of each pair of opposite leaves. It is a bee magnet par excellence and indispensible in any wildlife garden.

I coveted this beautiful plant from the moment I first clapped eyes on it many years ago, but it took me a while to find a clone robust enough to cope with winter wet – something that goes with the territory in our damp valley bottom. My first attempt grew well enough to begin with, but succumbed to rot during its dormant season. I also found the cultivar 'Mars Midget' to be unreliable. Happily, persistence paid off and it was third time lucky. We now have a clone that's as tough as old boots and such a strong grower that it sometimes needs reigning back by late summer to avoid trouble with the neighbours (its neighbours, not ours). Softwood cuttings root really easily, even quite late in the season; a batch I made on Saturday should be well-established by early October, though I will protect them in the greenhouse over the winter and not plant them out until next spring.

Knautia has a 'see through' quality and looks particularly good mingling with clump-forming grasses, such as the elegant Molinia caerulea subsp. caerulea 'Edith Dudszus' (a name that doesn't exactly trip off the tongue) that we have weaving through the same border.