Phuopsis stylosa - Large-styled or Caucasian crosswort

In truth, this should probably have been a plant to write about in June rather than July but as it has a long flowering period and there are still flowers on mine, I can probably just about get away with it.

Phuopsis is a mat-forming perennial with round, pink, pincushion flowers above bright green finely divided foliage. The pincushions being about 3cm in diameter.

It grows to a height of about 20cm and makes very pretty ground cover. I like it in an informal border with roses, salvias, hardy geraniums and summer-flowering alliums. I think it would also look lovely with grasses. It likes full sun but will also cope with partial shade apparently.

It germinates easily from seed although I don’t think I’ve ever seen the seed on sale – from memory I got mine from the RHS seed scheme and ordered it because I’d never heard of Phuopsis before! It is completely hardy and bees love it. It hasn’t so far self-seeded in my garden.

If it is beginning to sound like the perfect plant I should point out that it isn’t quite. The advice from Beth Chatto is that it should be grown in light, gritty soil when it will spread to about 50cm. However, in Marden clay I find it spreads a bit more than that and tends to get a bit straggly after a few weeks. Mine was flowering in May and I’ll admit that I love it less now than I did in May and June. I am by no means a tidy gardener but it’s a bit too messy even for me by mid-July, so it needs to be cut back. I treat it as I do my hardy geraniums to keep them compact.  With hindsight, planting it right at the front of the border wasn’t the best idea as there’s a bit of a gap after I’ve cut it back, but live and learn.