CORNFLOWER
Family COMPOSITAE
Centaurea cyanus
Annual/Perrenial
A native of Britain and Europe and one of the
most popular of hardy annuals. The varieties of
garden origin contain a wide range of colours,
but the most pleasing are those of blue and pink
shades.
There are also double-flowered forms.
Centaurea americana is the Basket Flower of America,
and reaches to a considerable height, sometimes
five feet, with oblong leaves, about five inches
long, and white, rose, pale pink or purple flowers,
up to five inches across, borne singly.
One of the most attractive, particularly as a
cut flower, is Centaurea moschata, from Persia, commonly
known as Sweet Sultan.
Easily grown from seed sown in March to April
out-of-doors where the plants are to flower, being
thinned to four to six inches apart. A position
in full sun is necessary and well-drained moderately
rich soil.
Propagation is from seed.
The flowering season is from midsummer onwards.
The perennial cornflowers Centaurea montana and other
varieties are from the Caucasus; they are not
so dainty as the annuals.
Cornflower – Centaurea Cyanus Minor.
Hardy Annual
2 to 3 feet.
Flowers of various colours. June to August.
A well-known annual, at one remove from the wild
Blue-bottle of the cornfields. Its growth is slender,
the leaves grey-ish green, the flowers double,
with a rough hairy calyx, in several shades of
blue – one a distinctive and charming light
azure – lilac, white and purple. The seed
should be sown at the end of March in patches,
and the plants thinned out to eight inches or
a foot apart. On light soils it sometimes appears
from self-sown seeds, and in such situations it
may be sown in August to stand the winter and
flower early in the following summer.
See also Centaurea
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