Centaurea, Bachelor's Button, Cornflower 'Blue Boy'

Florist Blue Boy can get quite tall if sown in the fall for a spring display. Mine grew to 4 feet and their long stems made a great addi...Read Moretion to my Mother’s Day flower bouquet. I found that they did not do as well when sown indoors compared to directly sown in the ground. The indoors ones grew to be weak plants. The seedlings are also cold hardy and overwinter so well, I really don’t need to go through the hassle of babying them in pots. I did not thin out the seedlings, thinking some probably won’t survive. They all survived through a mild winter here in the northeast. By late April they were putting on a dazzling display of true blue flowers. Shearing back the plants by 1/3 puts out a new flush of blooms. The bees love them! By late July the plants looked dead but oddly they were still putting out flowers, though only a few. As I was removing them, I found lots of bees hiding inside them as if they do not want to part with their beloved bachelor buttons. They are sun-loving plants that are easy to grow and tolerate drought and poor soil, requires little fertilizer and water. After all, they are just beautiful weeds.

While I love the blue color this cornflower provides it is definitely not something for the front of the garden; it grew even taller than...Read More I expected. The bees love it though, so I will be planting this again next year in a different spot.

From your friends at Botanical Interests: Annual. Summer bloom. 20" - 24" tall. Full sun. Drought tolerant. The sky blue flowers of this ...Read Moretall plant are attractive as cut or dried flowers. Will "naturalize" - seed drops quite readily and produces another crop of flowers. Seed must have darkness to germinate. Sow at depth of 1/4". Seed to 1" apart and thin to 6" - 8" apart. Plants have fewer flowers when grown in rich, overfertilized soils. The worse the soil, the better! An additional fun story: When Napoleon forced Queen Louise of Prussia from Berlin, she hid her children in a corn field and kept them entertained and quiet by weaving wreaths of Cornflowers (Bachelor Button). One of the children, Wilhelm, ultimately became the emperor of Germany. Remembering his mother's bravery, he made the Cornflower a national emblem of unity. Bachelor Button is known in England as Cornflower. The plant often comes up in fields of grain. *Bees are attracted to blue flowers and love this variety.

Brought to America from Europe in the 17th century and known to have been cultivated by Thomas Jefferson at Monticello. Plants will bloom...Read More throughout the growing season. Well maintained strain with all blue flowers. Extremely easy to grow and dries well. Self-seeding hardy annual, grows 2-3 ft tall.