Another star plant, or rather a galaxy of tiny stars, is the hardy perennial knautia macedonica from the scabious family. Flowers like small pincushions wave around on the tops of wiry stems over a very long season. They come in shades of lilac, violet, ruby red and crimson and I have been selecting from the deepest vivid claret coloured ones and now have many flowers of this colour weaving in and out of other things, looking like dots in an impressionist painting. My friend Claire, walking around the garden said 'The more you look, the more you see'.
I recently read of composer Alison Burns' music that it 'shivers and crackles with delicious harmonies'. Knautia shivers and crackles in the garden with harmony when it is among magenta hardy geraniums, and with contrast when threading through the lime green flowers of alchemilla mollis, or intermingled with the brilliant orange of alstroemeria. It also looks stunning in posies with blue cornflowers. Love it!