Knautia macedonica 'Melton Pastels'

Macedonian Scabious

The genus name is named after a 17th Century Saxon botanist, Dr. Christopher Knaut (1638-1694) which all sounds a bit teutonic for these exuberant, carefree plants. 

Very easy to grow, free flowering over a long period, a great cut flower in a range of pinks, mauves, reds and purples and an important nectar source. 

The plant bursts out from a central rootstock into a broad, cup-shaped bush, each shoot branching again and again to form a broad wiry network of stems. Every shoot and side-shoot ends in a flower. 

Established plants can produce hundreds of blooms in one season so deadheading would be a tedious chore. When old stems have finished cut the whole stem down to make room for new growth. 

If it's colour you want then it doesn't get much better than this.