Herb. No. 254 · Asteraceae
European grain-field annual; a garden escape and a cut-flower row.
Native · Europe
Cornflower
Centaurea cyanus
Garden flowersKitchenFlowersHarvestCompanions
The true-blue field flower of old grain — edible petals, a cut stem, and an insectary that does not mind poor soil.
Cornflower is the blue of European wheat fields before clean seed and herbicides. Petals color tea and sugar, mildly, and garnish a salad. The plant is an easy annual for a cut-flower row and a brassica edge: bees and hoverflies work it, and it does not want rich dirt. Double bedding types are a bouquet; single field types feed more insects. It is not spotted knapweed or the other thugs in Centaurea.
Flavor
Faintly spicy, faintly grassy. A color more than a taste.
Parts used
Petal · Flower head
Helpful
- True blue
- Poor-soil annual
- Edible garnish and a vase stem
Cautions
- Short vase life if cut late
- Can seed around
- Doubles feed fewer insects