Cornflowers! My very favorite "weed"

Cornflowers, officially known as Centaurea cyanus and sometimes better known as bachelors buttons, are one of my very favorite wildflowers - there's nothing else quite like cornflower blue!

 

Once so common a wildflower in England, it was actually believed that in bad crop years, grain seed that was sown came up as cornflowers instead!  The pesky weed grew so thick amongst the corn and grain that the edges of sickles were dulled from reaping fields choked with cornflower, earning it the old name Hurt-sickle. 


Even so, it was grown in gardens in Tudor times, and a wide variety of colors were in cultivation before 1630.  Today, it's one of my favorite cut flowers, blooming faithfully through the spring and summer.