Sarah Raven's top five wild flowers for gardens - in pictures

Greater knapweed (Centaurea scabiosa) is a big showy thing, like a cross between a cornflower and a thistle, with whiskery petals in a whorl. It flowers for a good eight weeks and looks fine in a mixed border: it is also excellent mixed with fine-leaved grasses in a lawn left to grow long. It’s a valuable nectar source for insects, a favourite flower of many butterflies including the marbled white and dark-green fritillary. Photograph: Alamy

I’ve had Devil's-bit scabious (Succisa pratensis) flowering in my garden until November in mild autumns. Its mauve-blue pin-cushion flowers held on long, wiry stems provide an elegant addition to late-summer and autumn grass. Photograph: Alamy

Field scabious (Knautia arvensis) is the largest scabious in the British Isles, with bumper-sized flowers in the palest, softest mauve. It has become a popular addition to wild flower seed mixes, but grows well only on chalky soil in a border or in grass. Photograph: Alamy

Weld (Reseda luteola) usually behaves as a biennial, self-sowing in an open patch from one year to the next if given well-drained, gritty soil and sun. Photograph: Alamy

Along with weld, Viper's bugloss (Echium vulgare) gives splashes of colour and architecture right through the summer, but you need a larger patch both plants to look their best and must deadhead regularly to keep them under control. Photograph: Alamy