Centaurea cyanus

Landscape Uses:Border, Container, Foundation, Massing, Seashore, Specimen. Succeeds in ordinary garden soil[1, 200]. Prefers a well-drained fertile soil and a sunny position. Tolerates dry, low fertility and alkaline soils. Established plants are drought tolerant. A very ornamental plant, there are many named varieties. The flowers are often used in dried-flower arrangements because they retain their colour well. A good plant for bees, butterflies and moths[20, 30, 108]. The cornflower is considered to be a good companion, in small quantities, for cereal crops[18, 20], though another report says that its greedy roots deprive the cultivated plants of nutrients and its tough stem dulls the reaper's sickle. Members of this genus are rarely if ever troubled by browsing deer. Special Features: Not North American native, Invasive, Naturalizing, Suitable for cut flowers, Suitable for dried flowers. References Carbon Farming Information and Carbon Sequestration Information Temperature Converter Type a value in the Celsius field to convert the value to Fahrenheit: Celsius Fahrenheit: The PFAF Bookshop Plants For A Future have a number of books available in paperback and digital form. Book titles include Edible Plants , Edible Perennials , Edible Trees , Edible Shrubs , Woodland Gardening , and Temperate Food Forest Plants . Our new book is Food Forest Plants For Hotter Conditions (Tropical and Sub-Tropical) . Shop Now

Edible Parts: Flowers Shoots Edible Uses: Colouring The young shoots are edible. Flowers - raw or cooked. The fresh florets can be used in salads. They are used as a vegetable or a garnish. An edible blue dye is obtained from the flowers, used for colouring sugar and confections. References More on Edible Uses

Seed - sow March in the greenhouse. When they are large enough to handle, prick the seedlings out into individual pots and plant them out in May. The seed can also be sown in situ during April, whilst in areas where the winters are not too cold a sowing in situ during September will produce larger and earlier-flowering plants