I'm always drawn to variegated foliage and the reddish purple blooms are a nice contrast. What is the zone rating?

It is advertised as hardy to zone 4 (close to your z3; maybe some extra protection might get it through your winter).

What is this, a scabiosa? Beautiful color, and goes great with that gorgeous purple next to it. What is that, some kind of veronica?

Dee

You are correct Dee. It is a Knautia/Scabiosa.

And good pick-up on the Veronica "Royal Candles" barely in the picture

Thanks rouge. What a fantastic color combination - was it on purpose, lol? My best combinations are usually by mistake!

;)
Dee

Of course it was on purpose Dee (I say this as I look down and see I have on mismatched socks!).

This post was edited by rouge21 on Fri, Jul 12, 13 at 19:54

UPDATE:

Here is this same plant almost a year later. It is very large and floriferous:

This post was edited by rouge21 on Tue, Jul 1, 14 at 10:14

So pretty!

As came up before, Rouge, the species, Knautia macedonica, can be a very bad (invasive) seeder, at least in my experience.

I'm assuming that these small cultivars are much more tame.

Looks wonderful. I think I weeded out my Mars Midget. Maybe the variegated foliage would be a good replacement as wouldn't mistake it for a weed.

I deadhead mine regularly to keep it from seeding.

Riuge, what type of soil is it planted in? I've never had any luck overwintreing any scabiosas/knautias. Yours is fabulous.

Pretty. I've gotten a number of them in at the nursery, but have yet to bring one home. Knautia tends to reseed with abandon here, so I am also a bit deterred by that factor, lol.

Do you find yours reseeds much? I suppose it isn't sterile...

How much does it revert? I noticed a lot of plants from one of our suppliers (not the best plants in general) reverted a lot.
CMK

Lol I thought this had to do with the storms we had last night!

I really like this plant...reminds me of my Clifford Moore.

It sure looks bright and happy! Mine hasn't bloomed yet.

AND...it sure has attracted a huge butterfly! :wink wink:

I like this!

I have had two of these plants for 2 years and have seen no seedlings in either year.

The base soil is clay but I have added lots of organic materials.

I am never quite sure of variegation but I am pleased with the many flowers on this plant.

It has definitely gotten bigger. Very pretty plant. Some of the plants I planted last year have tripled in size. What will they look like next year? Kind of scary lol