Succisa pratensis | devil's-bit scabious

Outstanding late-season wildflower for pollinators

Succisa pratensis, devil’s-bit scabious, in full-flower in August

My problem is that I have so many top-favourite plants that my top plants list must be hundreds long! Yet Devil’s-bit scabious is definitely up there at the top of my ginormous list. A wildflower every bit as good as any other ornamental plant, and better than most.

I fell in love with devil’s-bit scabious walking the wilds of the East Yorkshire coast where it grows among heather, ragwort, golden rod and ox-eye daisy. It’s one of those perfect plants that looks great in leaf, forming a lovely rosette in spring, and has tall airy stems lifting those blue-lilac flowers up high in late-summer for a large number of pollinators including at least one threatened insect.

Need to know information about Succisa pratensis

Succisa pratensis flowering in a wetland meadow in East Yorkshire

Succisa pratensis is a wildflower of wetland meadows, it tolerates lots of winter wet and needs soil that doesn’t completely dry out in summer to thrive. Though I’ve found it does actually tolerate quite dry conditions in summer in our garden - no different to any other garden plant. I grow three plants on the driest part of our slope and they have loved it, returning strongly for over three years now.

Originating from across Europe including the UK, to around the Mediterranean and North Africa, all the way up to the west of Russia. This is a widespread plant, though in the UK it is declining in the wild due to habitat destruction of lowland areas by intensive farming and construction on important habitats.

To grow and flower well, plant in full sun. The flowers open very late in summer, making this a useful plant for those end months. The plant produces a tight rosette of leaves that helpfully blocks other seedlings around it, then shooting its flower stems upward. Before they open, the flowerheads form darker blue buttons that look almost exactly like a liquorice all sort.

For plant community design, Devil’s-bit scabious is ideal because it’s tolerant of high competition thanks to evolving in grasslands. It will self seed gently. Those airy stems allow light in for other plants, making for friendly competition. It’s a top plant for me not just for how it looks and helps wildlife, but also for its tolerance of conditions - another good future plant for a changing climate.

How to grow Devil’s-bit scabious from seed

One of our Devil’s-bit scabious plants as a seedling grown in peat free compost

I grew all of our Devil’s-bit scabious plants for free from a tiny pinch of seeds I collected from a wild plant near to our garden. As you can see, they happily rooted in peat free compost and I planted them in their final spots at the size you can see above. They quickly romped away and flowered the first year. A couple of years later, I redistributed some of our plants to other locations in spring and they were fine - they clearly didn’t mind being moved.

Using Devil’s-bit Scabious in garden design

Succisa pratensis, Devil’s-bit scabious, growing alongside Monarda didyma

You can use Devil’s-bit scabious like an any other garden plant. It grows to about 40cm wide by 60cm high, though the leafy bit at the bottom is only about 30cm high. Its blue-mauve colour works very well with pale pink, white and purple, and it contrasts beautifully with a strong yellow, such as from ragwort, goldenrod and buttercups. All of the colours it grows alongside in the wild.

Personally I’ve been including it in garden mixes for dense but low and sunny plant communities. Mixes of perennials or regular meadow mixes. It competes well without dominating and returns reliably.

Is Succisa pratensis good for wildlife?

Succisa pratensis is the food source of the marsh butterfly, Euphydryas aurinia, which is threatened in the wild across Europe. An exceptionally beautiful chequered small butterfly, it’s worth growing Succisa pratensis just to try and help them.

I’ve observed that Devil’s-bit scabious is also a favourite of many species of hoverfly. In fact, it is the plant that attracts by far the most hoverflies of any plant I’ve ever grown. The hum each summer from the number of hoverflies is almost comparable to our lawnmower!

Various other butterflies, bees and wasps also use the flowers heavily. All this activity might be partly to do with its colour - insects seem to love blue flowers - and timing, with it flowering quite late when other plants are finishing.

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Solitary bee on Devil’s-bit scabious

I hope you share my enthusiasm for this wonderful plant. Please do let me know in the comments if you grow it and how it does for you, or if you are going to find some local seed to grow yourself. Of indeed, if you’ve seen it growing somewhere in the wild.

p.s. this week I wrote a list of some peat free compost I use and why watering is far more important to focus on than the brand of compost