Flower of the Week: Centaurea

June 2, 2011

This beautiful flower is something new to me this year. I bought two of them at a plant sale last spring. This looks like one big plant now, which shows you how quickly they spread. The Centaurea, also known as Cornflower or Knapweed, is just starting to come into bloom. There are a good many buds on it, and it already looks great.

From what I read in my books, they bloom in early summer, but will also have a smaller flush of blooms in autumn. We shall see if they do in my zone.

The flowers look like little thistles, but they are soft to the touch. They make excellent cutting flowers and will do well in light shade as well as full sun. Mine are getting full sun, but I will experiment with moving some into light shade.

You might be asking yourself, should you put anything in your garden that has 'weed' in it's common name? I'll let you know about this time next year!

As I've already found out, they are fast spreaders, so they probably aren't a good choice for smaller gardens. I'm the type of gardener who doesn't mind quick spreading plants, as I have lots of room to move things to, friends to give plants to, and two composters for what's left over!

And you can't have too much blue in your garden. In my garden, anyway.