How To Grow Scabiosa Flowers From Seed

Scabiosa, a terrible name for what is a really beautiful flower!

Gorgeous fluffy flower heads and long straight stems make for a great cut flower.

There are a few different types of scabiosa:
Scabiosa caucasica - perennial, scabiosa fama flowers in huge deep blue and white with frilly petals.

Scabiosa stellata - annual, also known as moon flower or drumsticks, it produces a wonderful seed head at the end of flowering which looks fantastic as a dried cut flower.

Scabiosa atropurprea - annual,  flowers in a wide range of colours; salmon rose, black knight, oxford blue, fata morgana apricot,  snowmaiden white and merlot red.

Germination Tips

• Scabiosa seeds can be sown in Autumn and Spring. See our seed sowing chart to work out when is best in your climate here.
• I would raise seedlings over direct sowing, these seeds are another variety that require light for germination. 
• Press the seed on top of the soil and cover lightly with vermiculite. 
  
• Germination takes around 10-20 days at 18-20 degrees.

Planting Tips

• Once the seedling has reached around 6 weeks of growth and has two sets of leaves, it is time to harden the seedlings off. Do this by putting the seedling outside for a few hours on the first day, gradually working up to a full day to prevent any transplant shock.
• Choose a full sun position.
• Scabiosa grows up to 90cm, so netting support my be required.
• Space 30cm apart.
  

• Scabiosa takes around 90-100 days from seed to bloom.
• Keeping up with dead heading will enable the plant to put more energy into producing more blooms.
• Harvest the flowers before the bloom is fully open. For scabiosa stellata harvest the seed heads when still light green.