This wonderful plant is the result of a chance seedling discovered by an elderly gentleman in a shingle pathway at his home in Kettering, UK. Its tall spikes have whorls of many mauve-pink flowers, veined in a dramatic velvet royal-purple. Sown early, plants will flower in their first year and so this excellent perennial border plant can be treated as an annual. When the first flowers are over, stems should be cut back and in many instances, a second flush of flowers will follow in the early autumn. Flowers summer/autumn. Height 48-60cm (4-5ft).