Greeting Cards - Small Scabious - Scabiosa columbaria

This pretty plant with soft blue-mauve flowers is commonly found growing on chalk grassland in sunny meadows and roadsides. Growing on the Wildlife Garden's chalk habitat it is a favourite addition to the diet of our sheep. Although its main flowering time is from July to September it is not unusual to find a persistent plant blooming well into winter. Good for wildlife, the rounded-flat flower heads on long stalks attract a range of hoverflies, bees and butterflies while the seeds from the pincushion-like seed heads are eaten by birds.