An excellent wildlife perennial, with many pink, thistle-like flowers emerging from attractive spiny buds, during summer, into autumn. Tolerating drier soils, but happy with some extra moisture. Synonym Serratula gmelinii.
The first image show the migratory (from Southern Europe) hummingbird hawk-moth. In the summer of 2022 they have been prolific in our gardens visiting valerian, salvias, asters and many other flowers.
